Five Nights at Freddy's: Battle for the Pizzaria
by Freelancer Josiah
Summary: After four nights of terror, security guard Alex Redding has had his fill of the goings-on at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, and prepares to either stop the madness on night five or die trying. However, not everything is as it seems, and if Alex truly intends to stop the dark secret lurking beneath the restaurant, he'll need to find some help from an unlikely source...
1. Prologue: Night Five Begins

Alright, everyone. Here we go; my first fic. I've been completely engrossed in the story and characters of Five Nights at Freddy's, and after watching Markiplier play through it and reading through the wiki for it, I've been inspired to take a crack at writing a fic that seems to fit it better than 'haunted animatronics' does.

I've altered the characters slightly, as well as changing their personalities (or rather, giving them some personality) so here's a brief rundown:

Alex Redding: Former SWAT officer, removed from his job and now working as a night watchman at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. Aged 26.

Bonnie: Female animatronic rabbit. Somewhat nervous, but loyal to Freddy and the restaurant.

Chica: Female animatronic chicken. Young, not as confident as the others, and occasionally a bit cowardly.

Freddy: Male animatronic rabbit. The de facto leader, can be a bit goofy at times, but is often serious and clear-thinking.

Foxy: Female animatronic fox. NOT responsible for the Bite of '87. Loves people, and hates what she's been doing with a passion.

SO! Without further ado, on with the show!

* * *

"Showtime…" I muttered, walking into the pizza deathtrap that had been my office for the past week. I nodded politely as the last few members of the cleaning crew hastily finished their work and left; it was clear they knew just as well as I did what would be happening in a few short minutes.

Into the security office, drop off the two briefcases I brought.

11:57 P.M. Three minutes until the clock chimes, the animatronics go into 'free roaming' mode, and all hades starts breaking loose.

I open up the briefcases. It has been a long week, with an absolute roller-coaster of feelings about this job.

Night 1 – intimidating.

Night 2 – terrifying.

Night 3 – frustrating.

Night 4 – flat-out annoying.

But now it's Night 5, and after that infernal bear gave my camera the stink-eye for nearly an hour, leaving me with barely enough power to make it, I've had enough.

I check the clock. 11:59. Night power should switch on… Now.

The lights in the restaurant go out, and my camera tablet turns on. I give it a quick glance – sure enough, it's on the main stage and all three of those blasted animatronics are staring at me. Chica's probably gonna be the first to move tonight, a pleasant change from Bonnie's door-camping. And, of course, later in the evening Freddy will show up and try to freak the crap out of me… Not to mention the accursed fox. Switching the camera to Pirate Cove, I'm irritated to see the curtains already opening; she's already getting set to make a run for me. Not like I care at this point.

The phone's ringing, and I glance over before hitting the button. Last night, my phone friend was killed, so who could be calling me…? The answer comes very shortly, in the form of some distorted, demonic-sounding garbled words and static coming from the recorded message. I shrug it off; at this point, nothing could really faze me. I've been through too much, and found out too many dark secrets this restaurant hides. Demonic possession is just one more for the list.

After a bit of research, and finding out that this place has had at least eight missing security guards reported, I've decided to take matters into my own hands. I shut both doors – I'll need a few moments' peace, and it's not like I'll need much power tonight anyway. With a grin, I already hear soft footfalls, and shortly after a banging at the door. Foxy's already made her run, so that's one less issue. Another glance at the stage, and both Bonnie and Chica are gone. They're both probably on their way here now.

I start pulling things out of the briefcases. Sometimes, being a former SWAT officer with some solid connections still available has its advantages.

Full Kevlar covering, including arms, legs, and helmet (to prevent another repeat of the Bite of '87)… Check. Twin police batons, in solid condition and ready for combat… Check. High-charge taser, hopefully enough to at least send an animatronic CPU haywire… Check. A few smoke grenades, just in case… Check. I strap the taser and grenades to my belt, get a solid grip on both batons, and lower the face shield on the helmet before sitting in my chair, opening the doors, and waiting.

Tonight's my last night at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, one way or another. Either they'll fire me for this or all that'll be left of me is my eyes and teeth.

* * *

So what do you all think thus far? Short, I know, but it's just to set the scene for what's about to come. I have enough material left in a Word document to do a few more chapters, so I'll upload those another time.

Read, review, and give me any suggestions; I'm still getting the hang of this ^^'


	2. Chapter 2: Rabbit Season

Wow, guys... I sincerely did not expect this to get so popular, so fast! Seven follows, three favorites, and a review within the first day... Wow. You guys really make me feel good about this!

I know these chapters aren't too long; I'm still getting used to writing action sequences. If any of you have any suggestions, I'm completely open for it; I'm just getting started in all this.

PS: sorry about the sudden chapter removal; I forgot to add in the Author's Notes and formatting.

Anyway, on with the show!

* * *

Soft footsteps outside the left hall; it's Bonnie, that's for sure. Remembering a technique I learned on night 3, I immediately go limp and wait for her to take the bait. Sure enough, a few seconds later she pads into the room, thinking she was undetected. I smile faintly, before grasping my batons and sitting up straight. Bonnie took the bait, leaping from under my seat into my face, black-colored eyes wide and jaw dropped, screaming like a banshee.

Then I stuff the baton into her mouth and force her to bite down on it, hurling my weight forwards and pushing both of us on the ground. I'm atop her, both hands grabbing onto the baton as she struggles, swinging and flailing madly in an attempt to get me off, her screaming beginning to distort and override with static from the pressure against it. I bear down heavier, and she looks up at me, our eyes meeting. I grin as I look into her black eyes, my own meeting the white, glowing pupils.

In her eyes, for the first time since I arrived here, I see fear.

With a grin, I force down a bit harder and hear a satisfying SNAP as I dislocate her jaw, climbing back to my feet. "Scream at me like that, you psychotic killer rabbit…" She's immediately climbing up as well, one paw resting on her jaw, causing her to 'flinch'; it's pretty clear that she's had a difficult time. She groans, before letting out a much more static-filled wail, crouching down and catching me by surprise by jumping at me like she was fired from a cannon! I scramble to get out of the way, but she's still able to graze me and knock me off my feet for a moment. Dang, looks like she's got a few other tricks up my sleeve…

Bonnie stares at me darkly, winds up, and springs at me with her jaw open wide, and I can even see a few sparks within her endoskeleton. Nice try, but I know this trick now… I step to the side and swing both batons, catching her in midair in a blow to the midriff, halting her in midair. She drops like a stone and I clearly hear a few faint pops and buzzes from within as she staggers back to her feet. It appears she's taken a nasty blow, because now she's flailing away at me, not even aiming clearly. I'm able to dodge a few swings, but I can see that she's got some nasty claws and I do not want to risk being hit by those.

Turns out, it doesn't matter; I have the reach advantage, and nail her on the side of the head between swings with both batons at once. She goes down, banging her head off my chair as she does, and lies still. Either she's 'dead' or out for the count; which doesn't matter. I hear the rattling of pots and pans, and double-check the camera. Foxy's looking out of the curtain, eyes wide and mouth closed for once. Freddy's still on stage, but for a half of a second I'm sure I can see him tremble.

I set the tablet down and stalk out of the right door, starting to move towards the kitchen. The rattling is getting more frantic now, as if Chica knows I'm coming. Suddenly, just outside the kitchen door, the rattling stops and I hear a faintly mechanical sound, almost like an electronic whimper mixed with the typical screech.

A wicked grin spreads across my face. That's right, you mechanical psychopaths. It's my turn to be the terror.

* * *

Read, review, and enjoy!


	3. Chapter 3: If you can't stand the heat

Wow, seems like you guys have a lot of hatred for these bots! I wonder why :P

Anyway, new chapter. Tried to lengthen it a bit, make the fight a bit more interesting; the way I explain it is, well... Bonnie expected a pushover and got curb-stomped for it. Chica... She's gonna be a bit tougher to deal with.

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter; the great thing about a kitchen is there are so many violent toys for you to play with!

Anyway, on with the show!

* * *

The rattling sound in the kitchen was getting louder, more frantic – it's clear the avian animatronic within was freaking out. I pulled a smoke grenade from my belt, tugged the pin free, and tossed it into the kitchen. A few seconds later, I heard a sound like an electronic, static-filled coughing and several fans working overtime – Chica was having some ventilation problems. I took two steps into the kitchen and swung a baton, nailing her broadside and sending her staggering away from the grenade.

She recovered quickly, giving me the same jet-black stare that I'd come to know them for, and screamed the banshee wail that preceded their attacks before charging me. I stepped aside, leaving one foot out far enough to catch hers, forcing her into a tumble and painful sounding landing, a few crunching and sparking sounds coming from her body. I grinned and turned away, thinking that she was dealt with.

And then she jumped on my back, punching and scratching at the Kevlar, screaming into my ear. I swore, wrestling with her as she grabbed me in a choke hold, before quickly backing up and slamming her into a wall, then the steel fridge, then the stove, and finally the wall again, forcing her to relent and let go. I turned to face her, swinging my batons and hitting her once, then twice, forcing her into an island with a cutting board in the middle of the kitchen. She turned, grabbing a nasty looking knife, and swung at me. I dodged, parried the blow and nailed her in the knee with another baton swing, hearing metal grinding as her servos attempted to compensate for it before leaping back, trying to grab some distance.

She glared at me, stepping back as well, before surprising me as she jumped and began to fly around the kitchen, dive bombing me with her kitchen knife as she did so! I ducked under a table, swearing to myself. When did she learn to do that?! I gasp as the knife stabbed all the way through the table, inches away from my face, and roll out from underneath.

And on she comes again, now wielding two knives and swinging them dangerously close to my face; she clearly knows what she's doing with those, and I do not want to get too close. I block and attempt to counter her swings, but every time I come in for a strike she moves to stab through the Kevlar and into my arm, forcing me to back off, further and further. And I could see in her eyes that she was doing this on purpose, driving me back and attempting to corner me.

This had to stop.

I dodged to the side suddenly, my eyes fixing on something that could bail me out of this; the expended smoke canister. Touching it and finding it still to be incredibly hot, I turned to Chica just in time to intercept her berserker charge, throwing her over my shoulder into the fridge, and yelped in pain – the blasted chicken had managed to get a slice on my cheek, and it was clearly starting to bleed; I could feel warm blood running down my face. She got to her feet again and screamed at me.

And I used my baton to bat the still-burning canister straight into her maw. Her black eyes went wide, screeching in pain as it burned both costume and animatronic alike. She dropped the knife, reaching into her mouth with one wing to try and get it out, to make it stop fusing her voice box… And I charged, nailing a solid strike on her beak and forcing it to clamp shut, causing the murderous robot to bite her hand off! "Hungry? Eat THAT, you rampaging mechanical menace!" She screeched even louder at this before flailing a moment, managing to get both the canister and the broken hand free and stared at him, before approaching menacingly. I swung a baton, aiming to hit her in the head –

She blocked it with the still sparking arm, before knocking it out of my hand and ramming into me with her free shoulder. I could feel the blade digging into the Kevlar plate protecting my chest, backing away as rapidly as I could and stumbling slightly, before my back came up against the stove. Chica pulled her arm back and started bringing the blade down towards my face. Quickly, I grabbed her wrist and started fighting against her, struggling to keep her from driving the knife down into my skull. Both hands wrestling against her, my teeth grit in concentration as she laughed - a warbled, mangled sound from her devastated voice box. I looked around, trying to find something - anything - to get her away, and my eyes locked on a frying pan. One arm still fighting a losing battle to keep her blade away, the other reached over, flailing for a moment before finally wrapping my fingers around the handle.

With the blade mere inches from my skull, I brought the pan around and landed a healthy smash to the side of Chica's head, forcing her back and away from me. I stood up and caught my breath as best I could, still dazed from the confrontation before feeling a chair hit me and knock me back onto my rear. I looked up, and a very heavily beat-up looking Chica was grabbing another chair, trying to get it into a throwing position despite her shaking and scratchy, broken voice. I'd had enough. As she threw the chair, I dodged to the side and allowed it to hit the ground harmlessly, grabbing my other baton and taking two steps towards Chica, who was attempting to get one final, futile swipe in with her knife before I came down on her head with both batons, hitting as hard as I could -

I felt what could be compared to a white-hot poker pressing against my left arm, and looked down just in time to see blood dripping. Apparently in her death throes, Chica had scored a hit on the joint of my armor. I stepped back, dropping my batons; didn't matter much at this point as Chica began smoking heavily, before her eyes shut and she fell forwards with a heavy metal SMASH! I smirked, looking at the smoldering corpse. "I do love some fried chicken..." Wincing slightly, I picked the batons back up and made my way back to the security office, glancing at the tablet.

2:50 AM and 76% power left. Not bad, but I had been out of the office. I opened up a small first-aid kit and started bandaging my bleeding arm, looking it over; it wasn't a lethal hit, however she had gotten a nasty gash. Now I'd always have the scars to remember her by...

I began to chuckle darkly, before locking both doors and turning to the tablet, flipping the screen to the show stage. Freddy was staring at the camera again, a few steps back - apparently, the bear was intimidated, and his black eyes were staring into mine. I gave him a wicked grin.

"So what do you think, Freddy? I'm having the time of my life in here! Guess the ad was right; this place IS where fantasy and fun come to life, 'cause I'm living out my fantasies now and smashing you murderous, defective hunks of junk to scrap metal!" My eyes were alight with malice, and a few specks of blood dripped onto the screen from the cut on my face. "Just you hang in there, Freddy-boy. I've got one more to deal with before you..." I flipped over to Pirate's Cove, grinning as a black-eyed Foxy seemed to be preparing for her run to the office.

"...And it looks like she's about to come knock-knocking on heaven's door."

* * *

Two down, two to go... But there's more to this pizzaria than meets the eye. As always, read and review!


	4. Chapter 4: Walk the Plank

Words cannot express how happy I am that you guys are enjoying this story so much. For my first shot at writing a fanfic, I'm absolutely staggered at how popular this has become in such a short time! You are all awesome, thank you so much. Knowing that there are people actually enjoying this story really does make me happy.

Now, a brief moment of bad news: I just started another semester at college, so I'm going to be busy as all blazes. I'll try to keep doing a chapter every day or so, but if I don't manage it then it's probably because I got a pile of homework... Taking calculus, chemistry, and physics in the same semester suuuuuucks ;-;

Aaaanyway, enough of my moping. On with the show!

* * *

I kept one eye on the door, having pushed Bonnie's 'body' to the side and away from it, settling in to wait for Foxy to come start knocking. I lounged in my office chair, the left door sealed, occasionally glancing at the tablet to monitor both her and Freddy. With a smirk, I notice she's gone from Pirate Cover, flipping the camera to the hallway and chuckling darkly as I see her sprinting my way. I set the tablet aside just in time to hear her banging on my door. Once… Twice… On the third bang, I hear her slowly padding away, before rising and opening the door, stepping into the hall.

She's there, back turned to me as she makes her way back, but upon hearing the door open she turns to face me, black eyes glinting in the darkness as they meet mine. I crouch down, prepared for whatever she may do.

"Come get some."

With a deranged howl, she charges me and I crouch, barreling forward and ramming my helmet against her middle and catching her off-guard. I can almost feel it as she's knocked down, before grinning and starting to make my way down the hall towards Pirate Cove. "Catch some wind in your sails, matey… This be a mutiny." With that, I climb onto the stage and look around. Having never seen Pirate Cove, I have to admit; I'm taken aback by what's within!

A mock-up sea village that looks like it's straight from a pirate's movie, complete with docks and rough-looking buildings, as well as a larger 'building' that seems to be made from the hull of a ship. Where I'm standing is actually a 'dock' next to a boat that I can only assume is meant to be Foxy's pirate ship, considering the Jolly Roger flag's skull has been replaced with that of a fox. As I walk around a bit more, I realize that this place is surprisingly large; the main boat-building is a two-story kid's playhouse, complete with wooden chests filled with toys, plastic gold, and assorted other 'treasures', as well as a rather well-made deck above, complete with a mast and canvas sail. I whistle slightly, looking over the Cove. "Man, they really spared no expense on this one…" With that, I look over and grin as Foxy makes a bee-line towards the ship, running up the 'dock'.

I smirk, crouching on the railing and waiting for Foxy to get a bit closer, before leaping down from my vantage point and landing almost directly atop her, coming down with both batons, landing a hit on each of her shoulders and forcing her into a roll, smashing into the side of the 'ship'. Having learned my lesson from Chica, I charge in after her, knowing that a blow that simple wouldn't have stopped these animatronics.

Sure enough, as I re-enter the playhouse, Foxy is back on her feet and snarling at me in her clipped, mechanical way. I drop into a defensive stance just in time to absorb her charge, grunting as I feel her hook digging into my armor. I set my feet and push back, managing to force her back a few steps, and come up with a baton to her midsection, another to her head and forcing her to back off.

She snarls, before seeing a few pirate props, including a few knives. My eyes widen as I see the glint of real steel; they used actual blades on a child's play area? I don't have much time to ponder this, as she's already begun throwing them at me, forcing me to dive behind one of the treasure chests, flinching as they dig into the solid wood, one nearly slicing at my arm. I hear the attacks stop; sounds like she's out of knives. Taking this as my chance, I turn around and grab the knife-filled chest, before hurling it at Foxy, who seemed rather shocked at the sudden attack.

It hits her like a ton of bricks, knocking her off her feet and into a small child's slide next to a 'cannon'. I don't let up, taking this as my chance to charge in and lay a healthy smash to her jaw, feeling it cracking slightly under the blow. She screeches at me and hurls the chest free, knocking the wind out of me for a moment. I recover just in time to dodge towards the stairs up; Foxy's got a pirate's cutlass, and judging by how it's shining in the light I don't want to be hit by it. I move to try and smash it out of her hand but to no avail; her hook digs into my forearm and forces me to drop it. I fall back, heading up to the upper docks and look at my arm; it's got a few new cuts and scratches on it from the fight, although the worst is from her hook; it's bleeding, but thankfully not bad. I look up just in time for her to follow me, and present her blade in an en guard; apparently she wants a duel. Well, if that's what she wants… My baton meets her sword, and we begin.

She opens up by jabbing forward; I block it and move in for a punch at her midsection, forcing her to roll to the side. She snarls before coming back towards me, swinging wide in an attempt to take my head off. I duck, rolling forward and bringing the baton down on her 'knee', causing her to yelp and stumble slightly. I attempt to follow it up and swing for her head, but she recovers with an upwards slice of her blade, forcing me to step to the side and out of range of my own blow. We circle each other a bit, snarling and occasionally making a few quick attacks in an attempt to throw the other off balance before she charges me again, this time coming in with three quick slashes. I block two of them, but the third grazes off of my Kevlar kneepad and I wince; even though I'm not cut, it's still a powerful blow. I need to finish this, and quickly. With a roar, I charge in, swinging the baton again and again, forcing Foxy around to the defensive. She blocked many of my blows, but it's clear the fight is taking its toll on both of us; she's twitching uncontrollably, and my chest heaves as I try to catch my breath.

She snarls again, attempting to charge me and finish the fight with one fast, powerful lunge – just the chance I was looking for. Summing up all of my strength, I shoulder ram her, the blade grazing off of my armor once more as she's knocked to her knees. I follow it up with a rising knee kick, sending her sprawling onto her back. She's struggling to stand at this point, so I finish the fight with one well-placed blow to the back of her neck, causing her to fall and go limp.

I grin, breathing heavily before yelling in triumph! "And the pirate sinks to Davy Jones' Locker!" With a chuckle, I catch my breath for a bit before inspecting the hook wound; it's still bleeding steadily, so I take Foxy's sword and cut a piece of the canvas to tie up the wound for the time being.

As I'm working on doctoring my injury, I hear a faint, mechanical grown. Expecting to see Freddy, I whirl around –

And see Foxy slowly staggering to her feet, groaning. "My head… Feels like I've had a hard system reset… Oh!" She blinks and looks up to me. I drop the sword and kick it away, readying my baton in case she tries anything else… Which causes me an utter shock when she looks at me, looks at the baton, and… Smiles?

"Now I remember! You're the guy… You freed me from the control!" She grins, and for the first time I notice her eyes; no longer are they the black with only twin white spots, but instead back to their normal hue. She doesn't seem to notice my hesitation, instead settling for running and simply tackling me to the ground in a hug, nuzzling against my chest. "You saved me from a waking nightmare, Mr. Guard… Thank you."

At this point, I thought I'd seen everything, but her words are making me think twice… Control? And her eyes are back to normal… And what's all this about a waking dream?

I don't have much time to think about it as I hear a deep, dark groan echoing from the show stage. Only one thing that could be… I slowly stand, looking down at her. "Listen, Foxy… I've got a lot of questions right now, but not much time to ask them. There's still one more out there, and I need to take care of him before things get much worse. Go to the security office and fix yourself up as best you can, then lock the doors. And for God's sake, don't open them unless it's me!"

She hesitates, looking confused for a moment, but complies and we go back out of Pirate's Cove. I turn, preparing to head for the dining room, before she stops me.

"Be careful… Freddy's the most dangerous of them all. Please… End this curse. And come back alive… Okay?"

I look confused, but my comments die in my throat as I see her eyes. She genuinely looks concerned for me… I shake off my thoughts; time for that when it's finished. Instead, I give her one last hug. "Wait for me in the office. Either I'll be back or 6 AM will hit first." With that, she nods and starts heading back down the hall.

I turn, preparing to start moving towards the show stage, before I finally notice my cheeks beginning to heat up… Was I… Blushing?

I shake it off; whatever it is, it doesn't matter now. It's time for the main event. I start stalking down the halls, a grin forming on my face.

Time to end this, Fazbear.

* * *

I feel like I tipped my hand a bit with the Foxy thing, however I felt that it'd be good to show there's a bit more going on than just the usual 'animatronics run amok/possessed robots' thing.

So I might as well spoil this as well: the fighting's not gonna end with Freddy. If anything, Alex's experience at Freddy Fazbear's is only just beginning...

Read and review!


	5. Chapter 5: Get Ready for Freddy

Here we go: the showdown with Freddy Fazbear himself. Gotta say, I was fairly impressed with this one; it's not easy for me to write action sequences that keep moving, so I'm happy with how much I kept this fight going... Although whether or not I did it well is for y'all to decide ^^'

I've also got to say, you guys are fantastic reviewers, and I love seeing PMs with both suggestions and speculation regarding the story and what's REALLY going on at the pizzaria. Y'all make it incredibly fun to write and discuss this story!

Before we got on with the carnage, I figured I'd take a moment to answer one or two questions that keep popping up.

First off, this story rejects both the 'murderous animatronics' and the 'possessed entities' canons. I'm developing my own reasoning for why Freddy and the others are so violent, and working within the spooky - albeit slightly generic - story within the game to provide a better explanation.

Second, regarding the animatronic's gender. I have my reasons for flipping both Bonnie (yes, the creator has said Bonnie is male) and Foxy, and they'll become clear later on ^^

Third, to everyone talking about Golden Freddy... Well, you'll see~

One last thing: the mocking tune that Alex sings at the start is from Nightmare on Elm Street, however I modified it a bit to fit the situation a bit better. I just heard it and liked the idea of using it too much to scrap it; I hope you at least get a chuckle out of how cheesy it is.

On with the show!

* * *

I slowly stalked down the hall of the restaurant, heading towards the dining room with a malicious grin on my face. Batons in hand and wounds from my fight with Foxy mostly tended to, I kept to the shadows as my eyes traced along the hallway. Remembering a quote from an old horror movie, I cackled and began to sing, low under my breath:

"_One, two, Freddy I'm coming for you…"_

"_Three, four, Better lock your door…"_

I grinned, hearing some faint mutters and mechanical groans as I moved past Pirate's Cove and the arcade, closing in on the dining room.

"_Five, six, I need no crucifix…"_

I shook my head slightly at this. That line was a stretch.

"_Seven, eight, Been staying up late…"_

I round the corner into the dining room, batons at the ready and a murderous grin on my face.

"_Nine, ten, I will sleep again!"_

And there he was, in all of his animatronic glory: Freddy Fazbear. I stared into his black eyes for a long moment, waiting for him to make the first move. He obliged me, coming in and screaming the murderous wail that I was so used to at this point. I let out a bellow of my own, before meeting his charge with a shoulder down and ramming into his midsection, following it up by swinging both batons upwards, landing two healthy blows on his chin and sending him reeling back, bumping into one of the tables and scattering a few assorted party favors.

Freddy didn't seem too amused by this, and showed it by grabbing a plate and tossing it at me, forcing me to block it and allow it to shatter, shards harmlessly grazing my armor but successfully distracting me long enough for me to rush in and grab my legs, bringing me down hard before leaning down and attempting to sink his teeth into my thigh with a wicked bite.

The Kevlar armor held, but the pressure he was able to bring to bear from an attack that simple was frightening; I yelled out in pain, before smashing two fast strikes into his head, forcing him to disengage and back off, adjusting the mask as he did so. I grinned, unable to resist. "Hey, Freddy… Be careful there, don't want to lose your head!" He growled, before making another murderous charge, turning it into a pounce as he rushed at me, slamming headlong into my chest and forcing me onto a table, sending me sliding along it.

I stopped myself with one baton, rolling out of the way just as he brought a heavy fist down where my head used to be, smashing a hole through the table. I returned the favor with a backhand swing, forcing his head down and jamming his muzzle into the hole. Remembering what happened when I fought Foxy, I prepared to attempt the blow to the back of his neck.

Then he brought both fists down and split the table in half, freeing his muzzle and dropping him out of range of my attack. This proved to be a problem as I'd put a heavy amount of force into the swing, and was forced to follow it through and staggered, before straight-up tripping over Freddy's prone form, forcing me to recollect myself quickly as he came around and threw a haymaker right at me. I blocked it with one baton, bringing the other down on his elbow with a healthy CRACK! Freddy screamed in rage and agony and stepped back, before grabbing the hand and popping the servo joint back in place with another loud POP!

Looks like I had my work cut out for me; Freddy was tough, fast, and dangerous. I thought quickly, looking around for some way of turning the tables-

My mind froze. Tables; the one thing this room had plenty of. With a new plan in mind, I came down on Freddy quickly with twin strikes to his knees, causing him to roar and toss a mostly un-aimed blow at me, managing to land it in a particularly nasty kidney punch. I groaned and recovered as fast as I could, taking the chance given to me by Freddy's maintenance check and replacing his knee joints by grabbing one end of the broken table and turning to face him.

"COMIN' THROUGH!" With a bellow, I charge him and ram into him with the broken end of the table, scraping up his suit and clearly knocking whatever passed for wind out of his sails. He fell off when I stopped, panting for a moment. I took that chance to try again to nail him in the neck; he rolled to the side and got back to his feet. Our eyes met and I watched him, wary for any attempts at attack.

And then the mechanical maniac shocked me by laughing in his dark, malicious voice before what little light there was left in the dining room cut out. I swore, eyes wide as I listened to him lumbering around me slowly, before hearing his familiar Toreador song beginning to play. I felt a chill running down my back before my memory kicked in, and I grinned.

In playing his tune, Freddy had just blown his advantage in the darkness.

Sure enough, his eyes were glowing and flashing before me, his face faintly showing a malicious grin; one that I quickly wiped off his face by jamming both batons into his eyes. He screamed out, louder than I'd ever heard before, and the lights came back on. So that was his trick, I suppose… With a malicious cackle, I shut him up with another blow to the side, following it up with a powerful kick to his middle-

The kick never landed. Instead, he somehow managed to get his eyes open long enough to grab my leg and throw me into the stage. I reacted by grabbing his microphone stand and bringing it smashing down on his head, wincing slightly as the speakers squealed with feedback from my action. I dropped the stand, getting back to my feet and starting to lay into him. I landed one solid swing to his knee, another to his elbow as he attempted to repair it, and a third onto his jaw as he attempted to bite me, snarling and giving off an angered growl. I was coming in for a fourth swing to his midsection when he grabbed my baton arm and twisted it, forcing me into a throw that smashed another table as I landed on it. He replaced the joints, before approaching me with what could only be described as a visage of pure malice.

Deciding I didn't want to experience the full brunt of Freddy's wrath, I rolled backwards and got back to my feet, feinting two quick blows in order to deliver another solid kick to Freddy's middle. This one hit home, sending the animatronic reeling for a long moment. I came in and attempted to attack him again, once more aiming for his neck.

Something tugged at my waist, and I looked down just in time to see Freddy pulling the pin on my other smoke grenade, I swore, jumping to the side just as it went off, spewing smoke and heat and burning into the belt and Kevlar beneath. Frantically I worked the canister off, my hands nearly suffering burns in spite of the gloves I was wearing, and tossed it – still smoking – to the side just in time to be hit square in the midsection by Freddy's fist. I groaned, the wind knocked out of me long enough for Freddy to hit me with an uppercut, breaking the strap and knocking my helmet free as I staggered backwards. Weakly, I tried to grab a chair and swing it, hoping to bean him, to hurt him, to buy some time.

It didn't work. Freddy grabbed the chair and shoved it against my middle roughly, forcing me into another table as I found myself bent over it, facing up as the animatronic bear gleefully placed his weight on me, preventing me from escaping as his hands wrapped around my throat. I swung my batons, but none of my attacks seemed to do anything; either they weren't strong enough, or Freddy was so focused on my death that he wasn't able to be harmed any further. Frantically, I scratched and grasped at his own hands, only to be met with another bite on the wounded arm, causing me to scream in agony as his jaw clamped down hard. I felt like he'd almost broken it with one bite before I managed to get it free. I even resorted to spitting in his face, anything to try and distract him – nothing worked.

So, I guess this is where I die. Not a bad death, I suppose; I did manage to survive four nights in this hellhole and smash up three of the four animatronics, hopefully beyond Freddy's ability to repair. Not a bad score, and I did give them one heck of a last stand, but it seems like nobody can escape Freddy's clutches forever. My vision began to blur and darken around the edges; if only there was some way of frying this bear-

Frying. Electricity. My taser! I blinked, trying to stave off unconsciousness for a few more moments as he squeezed and cut my airflow off, flailing one arm down to my belt and managing to get a secure grip around the taser, pulling it from its holster. No good, though; I would never be able to get it to where it'd be most effective, unless…

I had one shot at this. Better make it good. Looking into Freddy's malicious eyes, I managed to wheeze out what I sincerely hoped wouldn't be my last words.

"H-Hey, Fr-fr-Freddy…" He hesitated, his strangling grasp weakening for just a moment… But that was all I needed. "This may come as a shock to you!" With that, I grinned triumphantly as I drove the taser into the side of his neck, through the costume and putting the charge prongs directly in contact with his endoskeleton, before pulling the trigger.

The results were nearly instantaneous, and thoroughly conclusive. Freddy screamed out in agony, his eyes glowing brighter than I'd ever seen them before, electrical arcs forming within the endoskeleton's jaw as he convulsed, his grip on my throat forgotten as he writhed from the voltage running through his systems. There was a faint explosion from within him, and his eyes dimmed, went dark. I released the trigger on the taser, and Freddy stood for a long moment, leaning back and forth, before falling onto his backside, a few faint wisps of smoke still escaping the overloaded systems.

"Looks like I win this one, Fazbear." I wheezed, slowly getting to my feet. With that, I staggered towards the dining room exit… And froze in my tracks.

Bonnie, Foxy, and Chica were all standing there. Looking at me.

I groaned; after the battle with their de facto leader, I literally had no fight left in me, so I stood up and spread my arms, prepared to take whatever death they had planned for me. The three of them slowly approached me, caution evident in their movement…

Before all three bumrushed me and hugged me to the ground, surrounding me in an animatronic and faux-fur group hug. Looking at them in shock, the pieces finally came together.

Their eyes weren't the black, malicious color that I was used to seeing. They were normal.

As the three of them recovered, Foxy was the first to speak. "Mr… Redding, was it?" I nodded, still catching my breath. "I found Bonnie and Chica just as they were waking up, and… Well, we just wanted to…"

Bonnie smiled at me. "To thank you. You did the impossible; you freed all of us from the waking nightmare we've been submerged in for over a year."

"She's right, you know." I whirled in surprise, my eyes widening to see a clear-eyed and still faintly smoking Freddy Fazbear nod to me, removing his hat with a smile. "Through the potent beating you delivered all of us, you managed to knock us free from the control we've been stuck under for so long. Without you, I would still be locked there, a prisoner in my own body and forced to do heinous things." Freddy smiled, boosting me back to my feet and shaking my hand. "Thank you."

I stood there, completely at a loss for words. Freddy saw this, and his smile slowly vanished. "I suppose you could do with an explanation. Let's get back to the security office; it's a long story, and…" Freddy looked uncomfortable for a moment, before speaking once more.

"Quite frankly, Mr. Redding… You're not safe here, even now."

* * *

All four defeated, but not dead? And friendly, yet according to Freddy the pizzaria's still not safe? We're coming up to the climax of the first act, folks.

Next chapter will be mostly background, so it may be longer or shorter than normal.

As always, read and review!


	6. Chapter 6: The Joy of Creation

Holy crap, guys... 40 followers, 35 favorites, and 20 reviews. I never expected this to blow up so massively. You are all absolutely AWESOME!

Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out: it's 12:47 AM as I write this, and I just had a strike of inspiration so I had to write this now.

I'm not completely sure everything makes sense in how I've laid out the background for what happened here, but I've tried to hit on every point I can. Please, if you see any plot holes, feel free to message me and let me know; I might have to do an edit sometime if it's too bad ^^'

Thank you all so much again for being so supportive and being some of the most awesome readers ever; I never expected my first fanfic to get this amount of attention!

Well, enough of my yammering on. Enjoy the show!

* * *

Back in the security office, the others and I had brought in a few other chairs. Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy were sitting across from me, while Foxy… For some reason, Foxy had elected to sit next to my own chair. I shut the doors and glanced at the power: 63% at 5 AM. Not bad, but I hadn't exactly been using much of it. With a nod, I look to Freddy. "Right, we're as safe here as I think we'll ever be, so… Start talking. You guys don't want to kill me anymore, so why am I not safe? And what the heck was this control and waking nightmare stuff you were telling me about?"

Freddy sighed, setting his hat on my desk. "Honestly, Mr. Redding… It's best we start at the beginning, when Freddy Fazbear's first opened…" With that, the animatronic bear took a breath, slowly let it out, and began to speak.

"When the restaurant first opened, it was just one animatronic; a one man comedy and karaoke show, staring Freddy… But it wasn't me. You see, I'm actually a replacement for an older model, in the restaurant's story, I was supposed to be the 'son' of the original. Now, the old Freddy was very different; he was a lot more of a cut-up, and used more physical humor than just joke-telling in his act. He was also not brown, but a yellow-golden color."

I freeze at this, my memory going back to night four… The poster that I'd seen backstage, apparently scrapped under a pile of assorted rubbish; a golden version of Freddy. The bear across from me continued to speak.

"He was an absolute hit; kids loved him for his warm, joyful attitude, and adults loved his humor because it wasn't all just cheesy kid's jokes. Sure, there were a few accidents; he occasionally knocked props and such onto the kids, but the restaurant sorted that out by making sure everyone kept a bit of distance away from the stage. It worked out fairly well, and was successful for a number of years. There was even some initial talk about expanding the act and adding in more animatronics, which later became the first versions of Bonnie, Chica, and even Foxy and Pirate's Cove. It was a really successful run… until early 1987."

My mind reeled for a moment. The incident, five years ago… I raise my hand, gesturing for Freddy to stop. "Wait, wait, wait… So you weren't even around during The Bite?" Foxy visibly flinched a bit at the mention, before stopping me. "Before you go any further, Freddy… Alex, I want to make it clear that I was not responsible for that." Freddy, in spite of the mood, managed to smile.

"Don't worry, Foxy. I was going to explain what happened. Now then…" As Freddy started to speak again, I absent-mindedly put one arm around Foxy's shoulders, trying to reassure her.

"Now, around January of 1987, the old Freddy had started to read newspapers and watch the television at night with the watchman at the time. Around then, he began to change…" Freddy shook his head. "Alex, you surely know that around that time, the world was still in a bit of a nasty spot, and negativity was still pretty much everywhere in news media, without much positive ever really being shown. To a normal human like you, it's not too bad; you can see the good just as much as the bad in the world, because you grew up seeing all of it. The old Freddy, though… All he'd ever known was the good in the world; birthday parties, fun times, all that. Being exposed to that much negativity… It was hard for his AI to comprehend. He was trying to rationalize the bad things in the world with how much goodness he was seeing; his entire directive in life was to bring joy, after all."

Bonnie nodded, interjecting. "I was the first to notice, honestly… He started behaving erratically at night, going into some sort of funk. Even during the day, his jokes weren't as spot on, and he seemed to be forcing them a bit too much; I mean, they weren't amazing, but he'd never had issues with them before…" Freddy nodded, resuming.

"Normally, this kind of defect is pretty simple to sort out, at least in a human mind; you're giving these kids something positive in a world full of negativity. Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy all got this idea programmed in. When I came along, I got it too… The only person that didn't get it was Freddy. He was trying his best to make these kids happy, while at the same time seeing and understanding that people could be so mean, so horrible to each other… He wasn't able to rationalize it. His mind couldn't bend, so around six months later, it broke."

Chica piped in at this point. "It was a fairly simple party; he was performing normally, before one child came up to the stage and looked up at him. He grinned and crouched down, addressing the kid, who apparently had a question. The kid asked him…" Chica sighed. "The kid asked him 'Freddy, how are you always so happy? Everyone at school's always sad… What makes you so happy?' At that point, I think he just… Broke."

Foxy nodded as well. "I was in Pirate's Cove at the time. After the kid asked him that question, I saw his eyes go from the normal color to a complete black, with only a pair of white spots, kind of like how ours were earlier… And then he spoke. His voice was so… Different. Deeper, more menacing, and more… Well, mechanical. He said…" Foxy sighed.

"He told the child that he 'finally understood' and that 'he felt the joy of creation.' When the kid asked if he could share it… The lights went out, and… old Freddy bit him." She shook her head, shuddering. "I was always fast, so I tried to run from the Cove to on stage to stop him. I smashed right into him, and heard this horrible crunching sound, and this ripping, gushing…" Foxy shuddered again at the memory. "When the lights came back up, the old Freddy was nowhere to be seen and I was covered in gore."

Freddy shook his head and resumed. "Management evacuated the place, and then tried to figure out what to do. Nobody knew where the old animatronic had gone, and everyone remembered Foxy being the one covered in bloodstains. That's actually how she got the damage and such that you saw when you first met her; fighting off the old one. So, they did the only thing they could do; they took the others off of free roam mode, cleaned the place up, and did everything they could to reimburse the family. As a last resort to try and make amends, they shut Pirate's Cove down and put Foxy on permanent hiatus, as well as replacing me… But the damage was done."

My mind was reeling. So the golden Freddy I saw was the one responsible for the Bite… And Foxy ended up taking the blame because she was the one visibly covered in blood. Absently, I hugged her a bit more as Freddy continued.

"The restaurant was never as popular after that, and a later event where a psychotic worker murdered five children in here pretty much cemented the place's reputation and downfall. Most of the regular customers left, and there never really were any new ones. It's only recently that the place was getting set to be demolished, but… I'm getting ahead of myself. It was around another two years just to renovate, get everything taken care of, set up the nightly free roams so our joints wouldn't lock up, and try to get everything as good as it could be." Freddy sighed.

"Then he came back, and everything went downhill. He came back, and cleared out this place's old basement; it was where we used to have all our spare parts before backstage was renovated to handle it. Within two weeks, we were hearing strange mechanical noises from there at night. The watchman didn't believe us; apparently, he'd never seen the old Freddy come in, and the security office was insulated well enough for him to not hear the noise. On the Monday of the third week after that, the security guard was late coming in… And HE put his plan into action. Before we were able to reboot into the nightly free-roam, he snuck around and plugged these computer chips into the back of our necks. The guard came in, and we woke up, ready to relax and hang out with him…" Freddy took a breath, the next words seeming to come to him very difficultly.

"Then this text scrolled across our vision, and our normal sight turned into this infrared spectrum. Before we knew what was happening, we were all moving about without any control over ourselves… The guard thought something was wrong with us and tried to talk to us, but… We didn't have a choice. You… You probably know by now what happened to him after that." The bear sighed, holding his hat over his chest. "This was about a year ago. The place was supposed to be demolished at the end of last year, but after the workers found the first guard, stuffed and murdered in a spare suit, they panicked. They thought we were seeking revenge for being put out of commission, and we weren't able to tell them differently; those chips were nearly invisible to their diagnostics, and they prevented us from explaining the situation clearly."

I nodded, everything starting to become clear; a dark, brutal picture, indeed. Freddy continued.

"So that's the story, really… A year passed, and seven other security guards died by our hands. We were forced to do it, manipulated into every motion while being unable to look away, unable to stop ourselves… Unable to tell anyone so they could stop US. Nobody dared shut us down, since they were worried we'd be reactivated and become murderous once more, and nobody wanted to destroy us for fear of failing to do so completely. They couldn't afford the kind of advanced technician it would have taken to find the chips and fix us, and they couldn't shut the place down. So they tried to explain it to the guards as best they could, kept as many of them on for as long as they could afford, and hoped some kind of solution would arrive. Meanwhile, my golden counterpart has been working away in the basement, with free reign… And what's worse, a shocking number of parts have been going missing from backstage, even more so recently."

I froze at this, gesturing for Freddy to stop. "Wait… Animatronic spares and parts have been going missing?" At the bear's nod, I felt the lump of ice in my gut growing a bit more. I had a bad feeling about this…

"So that's really it. Tonight, you managed to somehow break the chips and free us from the control, but the mechanical noises have been getting louder all week. Whatever he's planning, it can't be good… And I have absolutely no clue what it is. Heaven help us, I don't know." I shake my head, before stopping Freddy.

"I hope and pray I'm wrong, but… I think I may know." The animatronics stare at me, wide-eyed. Before they speak, I reach over to the phone, starting to play the call from earlier in reverse.

The sound is still not very clear, and it does cut out on occasion. Foxy, Bonnie, and Chica stare at it, eyes wide and jaws dropped. "That… That's HIS voice!" Foxy spoke, a slight quaver in her voice. I nod grimly, listening towards the end…

*Mumbling, static*… "Feel the joy of creation"… *Static, a faint mechanical screech, silence*. I shake my head, before speaking.

"I get the feeling I know what he's talking about. The joy of creation… He's not just killing people here; there have been a number of unsolved disappearances around this town, mostly homeless, orphaned children… the kind of people that would slip through the cracks in society. Add to that the missing animatronic parts and this 'joy of creation' thing…" I shake my head.

"He's building more animatronics under his control. And where he can't get the mechanical endoskeletons, he's using human bodies. All the nastiness he saw in the world, and all the happiness he saw in all of you… He's converting people into animatronics to try and get the hatred to stop. What he doesn't realize is that he's killing people doing it."

The others froze, their eyes wide. Freddy shuddered visibly, one hand firmly grasping his hat. Bonnie grasped at Freddy's other paw, clearly looking horrified. Chica was wiggling in her seat, eyes showing that she'd be crying if she could. Foxy gasped and hugged me close, terror showing clearly. With a wavering voice, Freddy finally spoke.

"I… Oh dear… I-If I'd only known… How could I be so dense?!" Freddy swore, bashing his fist against the table before looking at me. "This place is dangerous, especially now that we've figured that out. Mr. Redding, if you want my advice…" He glanced at the tablet. "It's 5:50 AM. Tomorrow, tell the manager you're quitting, explain everything that you've found out, and run. Get as far away from here as possible. You're on HIS radar now, and after tonight's performance it's probably safe to say that he wants you more than any others. Save yourself, Alex… Get out of here."

I think about it for a moment. If I did that, what would happen? These guys would be melted down, and MAYBE Golden Freddy's plan would be foiled. But… If he has an army constructed, and they went up against normal people… It'd be a slaughter. Problem is, it'd also probably be a slaughter if I stuck around…

Then I looked at Foxy. I saw her eyes, full of sympathy and sorrow for the entire ordeal. That made my mind up; it wasn't fair to them to just leave them to die… Besides, I came in tonight fully expecting death, so why not try and end this before it even starts?

"No."

The others look up at me, their eyes wide. "…What?"

"I said no." I stood up, looking at them. "If I tell them what happened, it's a 50/50 chance that they'll get killed and added to this Golden Freddy's army, and you guys will either be killed or added to his collection. If I stay… Then at least I can have a fighting chance, and I'll have the four of you on my side. I'm not going to leave you all to a fate worse than death; not when I can face it alongside you." The clock chimed; 6 AM. "I'll be back tomorrow night, and I'll be bringing a tool kit. Tomorrow night, I want you to grab as many spare parts as you can get away with and meet me here; I'll do my best to fix you all up and get you ready. And then… We're ending this."

The others look up at me, fear crossing their eyes for a moment as what I just said sunk in… Before it was replaced with something else. Determination. One by one, they all nodded to me, and Freddy spoke. "…Thank you, Alex. We'll be here tomorrow." With that, I opened the security doors, allowing them to once more take their places as I headed towards the exit. When I reached it, I looked back towards Foxy, giving her a small smile.

You and I have more in common than you might think, Foxy… And I'll die myself before I let any of you suffer through all of this again. I swear it.

With that in mind, I walk out and head for my car. Tomorrow's going to be a long night, and I need to make some calls. If Golden Freddy wants a fight, and if he wants to do what I think he's planning…

I'll give him the fight of his life.

* * *

Right, so what did y'all think? Good, bad, indifferent?

Tried to give a different motive than 'revenge/jealousy/malfunction'; they're all decent, but... I find this reasoning much more terrifying. Maybe y'all disagree, but at least I tried to be original, right? ^^'

As always, read and review!


	7. Chapter 7: In Which Plans are Undone

Holy crap, you guys... I am so sorry this took so long. College has been an absolute bear on my free time, and I literally only had time to write another chapter tonight... And yet, somehow, I still get so much positive feedback on this story. It really does make me happy that y'all stuck with this for as long as it took me to get an update.

Rest assured, I will not be abandoning this story; it's just going to take a bit between chapters because of college workloads. Thank you all again for your support!

On with the show!

* * *

I finally awoke, checking the clock. It was Saturday, 4:35 PM. Man, I was tired from last night… I stretched out and crawled my way out of the bed, slowly shaking my head to clear the last bits of sleepiness from my head before wincing slightly at a pang from my right arm.

I sighed. Guess it wasn't a dream after all… On the plus side, that means tonight won't be dangerous from the fantastic four. On the minus side… It's gonna be a long night. With that in mind, I picked up the phone. Golden Freddy had me in an awkward spot; I knew that if my theory was right I'd need a hell of a lot more than a pair of batons, some smoke grenades, and a souped-up taser to deal with him but that kind of thing takes time. I hope that I'll have one more night before it all breaks loose… With that in mind, I dialed in the number for an old friend of mine from the SWAT team; Joseph Adams. He answered after two rings.

"Sgt. Adams speaking." I grinned. Time to have some fun with him… "I have a bomb." You could hear him freeze up on the other end of the line. "…A bomb. And what do you plan to do with it?" At this point, I howled with laughter. "I'm gonna shove it up your rear, Joe!"

He unleashed a string of profanity before starting to laugh as well. "Redding, I'm gonna have to get caller ID on these things one of these days… How ya doing?"

"Pretty good, but I need some help." I take a deep breath, before listing off my requests. Kevlar plating, face shields, weapons and breaching charges, high-voltage tasers, and even one or two of the new personal water cannons that the Riot squad had. You could hear a pin drop on the other end as I read off the list.

"I… See. And you need all that for a security job at a Chuck E. Cheese's knockoff… Why?"

I took a deep breath, and began to explain. Everything, from the evil animatronics to the five nights of terror to the reveal last night that it was all this ancient, Golden Freddy's scheme to spread his 'joy of creation'. "…Look, Joe. I know this sounds crazy-"

"Ya think? You sure you haven't had too much of their crappy pizza? 'Cause this sounds like a bad horror story." I shook my head, taking a breath. "No bull, Joe. I've got the scars to prove it from my brawl last night; heck, if you don't believe me you're welcome to tag along."

With a sigh, Joe replied. "I'll see if I can get it put together, but it won't be ready until tomorrow night. This is a tall order, Alex… And if I'm gonna sign all this out to you, then I'm gonna be there to see it for myself." I sighed in relief; Joe was a tough guy, but he was fair. And after tomorrow night's brawl, he'd believe me for sure. "Thanks, Joe. I know this is tough for you to pull off… Hey, I gotta get going. Bunch of stuff I need to do before tonight. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" We passed a few comments back and forth and I hung up. With a glance at the clock, I stood; I had about 7 hours to prepare for tonight's festivities, and I wanted to make sure I'd be ready.

After all, as intimidating as Freddy and the others are, they're no fighters. I'll have to change that. With a nod, I headed out to the local hardware store, my mind already spinning with ideas for how best to prepare my new allies for fighting off whatever it was keeping us from securing the shop. My mind wandered over to Foxy for a moment… She would be a tough one, and her suit was fairly tattered. Fortunately, an old ex-girlfriend of mine knew how to sew, and she still owed me a favor.

My mind lingered on Foxy for a moment more, then I shook my head. One thing at a time; first off, get the tools I need. Then tonight, spend the shift fixing up and upgrading the crew. Then tomorrow…

I grinned. Tomorrow, we have an old-fashioned sweep and clear.

11:58 PM.

I sat back in the office as everyone left, smiling to myself as I glanced over to the two cases I brought; this time, instead of equipment to fight the four of them, I've got a huge supply of tools and gear to help them out. The minutes passed, and I checked over the cases, before watching the clock.

12 AM came around, the cameras on the tablet kicked on, and I grinned as I glanced over. The others seemed to pick up on it, and Foxy was the first to pop out of her curtains and start heading down the hall, closely followed by Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy himself. Sure enough, a few moments later they all came in and nodded. "Evening, guys. Ready to start things in motion to take down the golden maniac downstairs?" They nodded, determination in their eyes; it was time to take back their home. I pulled one case out, setting it near Freddy. "Brought a bunch of tools and things to upgrade y'all, but we only have six hours to get everyone straightened up, and I want you all to be ready to rock within two. We'll have to push back the actual assault until tomorrow night, but the upside of that is we'll have some heavy equipment to deal with him. Sound good?"

Freddy smiled, blue eyes twinkling slightly as he thought of dealing with the demon downstairs. "Sounds good to me. We've dealt with him for a year now, so we might as well wait one more night..." With that, his voice trailed off, and he locked eyes with Foxy. I raised an eyebrow; what are they up to…? Freddy spoke again. "Um, but after the damage done last night, Chica and Bonnie need some heavier repairs than Foxy, so we're gonna go backstage and swap a few parts out. You can handle Foxy, right?" I tilted my head curiously, before nodding. Might as well; after all, I do have a surprise for her… Freddy gave me a knowing grin. "Sounds good. We'll be backstage; flip on the camera if you need anything." With that, the three of them headed out, Bonnie snickering slightly as she did. Odd…

I shook my head, before focusing in on Foxy. "Right, give me a rundown on what's wrong, okay?" With that, I took out a notepad and pen, and started writing everything down. She focused for a moment, her face of concentration.

"Hmm… Jaw servos are slightly misaligned, main gyro needs to be recalibrated, the hook needs a sharpening, my vision needs a quick tune-up, and then…" She sighed, looking over her tattered costume. "Well, there is all this, but I don't think there's much to do about it…" I smiled knowingly, before opening my toolbox.

"One thing at a time. First off, c'mon over and lemme take a look at that jaw…" With that, I set to work, chatting idly with her as I repaired the servos and retuned her vision, handing her a file to sharpen her hook with before opening the back of her costume, setting to work on her gyro. As I did, she looked uncomfortable, before speaking. "…Thank you. After being so neglected for doing what I thought was right… It feels good to have someone caring for me like this." I blushed a bit, before speaking.

"Y'know, Foxy… We're not that different." Her head tilted, and she looked at me curiously. I took a breath, and explained. "Before I started working here, I was a SWAT commander. My team was one of the best for quick entry and neutralization of threats… I'm gonna teach you and the others a few tricks from my time there later, by the way… Anyway."

I took another breath. Was I really telling my story to an animatronic female fox? Before I could think about that further, I continued. "It was around a month ago. We were coming into performance analysis and review, so I was running my whole crew hard and fast on quick neutralization drills, sweep and clears, booby trap checks, everything… Then we got a call. Active shooter, potential bomb threat at a big apartment complex. We suited up and rolled out, getting as much intel as we could. Apparently, the guy was some maniac that was shooting up his ex-girlfriend's building because he'd gone off the deep end after she broke up with him and thought the entire building was in on some conspiracy to ruin him… Anyway. We went in, cleared the place floor by floor. Bomb squad came in and dealt with some of his IEDs on the lower two floors, then we started moving through the third. We were three apartments down when we came to his ex's and heard gunfire. We didn't even hesitate; my point man kicked the door in… And all blazes broke loose."

I winced, staring off as I remembered the incident. "My point man, Miller was his name, had set off a booby trap that according to intel wasn't supposed to be there; he supposedly didn't have the ability to get enough explosives to set that kind of trap. He took two steps in and got shredded by a pair of ball-bearing stuffed bombs that also managed to blow half the wiring and electronics off. Apparently, the guy had wired half of the walls to the hallway to blow as well… He got all of us. I radioed for backup the instant the walls fell, shrapnel and the blast force knocking us all out of commission. He came out in the hall, holding a handgun, and started shooting my squad in the head, one by one… He came to me, and was ready to fire, when a sniper from across the street finally got a clear shot through the smoke and rubble and ended it with one bullet."

I sighed, shaking my head. "It was a six man entry team. Including Miller, we lost four of them. My second in command was a guy named Adams, who got off light; only a few broken bones, but he was taken off of field service and stuck behind a desk due to PTSD. I never checked out cleanly for it, but still got off from that debacle with half a pound of metal shrapnel embedded in my back. Some of it's still in there." I faintly became aware of a paw moving off my back at this; was she hugging me? "Then came the investigations, and the political inquisitions. The whole department was blaming each other, and they decided to come down on me as a bad commander. I took the heat for it and got my badge pulled within a week, figuring I could find some work somewhere else."

I chuckled faintly, wincing a bit. "You can see how well that worked. Apparently, politics don't matter for a reason why I was dismissed, the only thing that mattered was that I got the boot. Couldn't get a job with private security or any other department, so I finally saw this ad. Was low on money, figured I'd give it a shot, so… Here I am, five nights later."

I looked over to Foxy, a sad smile on my face. "So I guess we're not that different, really… You got locked down and took the blame for what Gold did, and I took the heat for an internal power struggle over a sweep that went horribly, horribly wrong." I shrugged. "Dunno why I told you that, but… I guess you're not alone. Not anymore, at least…" She looked at me, smiling faintly before resting her paw in my hand.

"No, Alex… Neither of us are alone anymore." I smiled at her, mind blanking for a moment, before hesitating and looking over to my bag. "Oh, by the way… Got something for you." She tilted her head curiously, and I opened it up before pulling out a brand new suit, freshly made and well-tailored. My ex had done a bloody good job at making this in such a short time, but it was so worth it to see the joy on Foxy's face. I smiled and handed it to her. "Might need to suit up. After all, you've got a replacement for that old, beat up one now." I grinned, nodding to her. "To new beginnings, and to not being alone." She beamed at me, before rushing over and pulling me into a tight hug. Wow, even when they're not murderous, these four could put out some strength… "Thank you… Thank you so much…" I smiled, returning the hug before letting her go back to the Cove to change.

I sat back, smiling as I glanced over the cameras, feeling my face warm up fairly heavily. What was that all about? I mean, until last night she wanted me dead, and suddenly I'm opening up to her, telling her how I got my badge pulled… I shook my head. Doesn't matter; once we clear this mess up, Freddy Fazbear's will be back in action and I'll hopefully be able to find a different job. After all, this place won't need a guard with four clear-minded, powerful animatronics running the show, right?

I shook my head at that; for some reason, thinking of being away from the pizzeria made me feel depressed… I cleared my head, sitting up straighter. No time for that now; we need to finish getting ready.

Around half an hour later, the entire gang came up to the office, and I started speaking again. Using the tablet's map and cameras as a guide, I walked all four of them through team combat, hand-to-hand, and the best ways I thought would work against Golden Freddy's cronies. "The important thing here is to remember; the things in those suits aren't steel and electronics, they're mostly flesh and bone. The good part of this is, well… Flesh is a lot easier to damage than steel." With a grin, I glanced at the clock; it was nearly 2:30 AM and they were all as trained and ready as they could be. Apparently, Freddy had been expecting this kind of activity and had taken some time while they were in backstage to download some information on fighting techniques.

Finally, I looked over the four of them, a grin on my face. "Guys, I'm proud of all of you. You managed to learn what I had to teach in record time, and with the upgrades I set you all up with we're sure to give that doppelganger the fight of his life, and shut his plan down!" They cheered, and I felt my chest swell with pride…

…Right before the phone went off. We all stared at it, wide-eyed, before I pressed the answer button… And a malicious, heavily static-filled voice began to speak. It was Golden Freddy.

"SENSORS AND ANALYSIS HAVE SH-SHO-SHOWN THAT… SUBJECTS FREDDY… FOXY… BONNIE… CHICA… ARE INCOMPATIBLE WITH THE BRIGHT FUTURE AND THE JOY OF CREATION. CONCLUSION: THEY ARE FLAWED. THEY MUST BE REMOVED."

I froze. Was he… Watching all this? I looked over to the tablet and my eyes widened; from behind the show stage, an army of blood and mucus leaking animatronic suits, all with jet-black eyes, was beginning to march its way up from the basement lair. The voice continued on.

"ANALYSIS OF… SUBJECT ALEX REDDING… HAS CONFIRMED THAT HE IS COMPATIBLE WITH THE BRIGHT FUTURE, BUT MUST BE SHOWN THE JOY OF CREATION. ST-ST-STAND DOWN AND PREPARE TO EXPERIENCE THE BRIGHT FUTURE."

I swore. He was moving his plan ahead? We weren't ready; no plan, no backup, no weapons worth anything… and as the face of Golden Freddy flashed across my tablet's screen, followed by static, no intel. It was just like the blasted incident in the apartment complex…

Except this time, I wasn't being paid nearly enough to deal with this. Another glance down the halls confirmed that Golden Freddy had a veritable army of bio-mechanical soldiers, all ready to kill all of us. With that in mind, I made an executive decision.

"RUN!" I led the way out, sprinting out the side door and down the East Hall, cutting into the kitchen just as the army filled the Dining Room, their gazes turning to face us as they slowly marched after us, ready to kill. The back exit was locked, but I decided that a bit of minor property damage was the lesser of two evils. With a guttural grunt, I bashed the door open, gesturing for the others to follow. Their eyes were wide; they'd never been outside the pizzeria before… I kept running with them right behind me, making it to the old truck that was my vehicle and unlocked it, waving the others to pile in just as the front doors and glass broke, revealing the armies of animatronics. My jaw dropped; there were HUNDREDS of the blasted things!

Foxy screamed in the passenger seat, Freddy's eyes widened as he saw the display, and my face changed to a grim visage, worry creeping into my voice. "We need to run. Now." With that, I started the truck, dropped it into gear, and skidded my way out of the parking lot with the pedal to the floor.

We ran, and the armies of the reconfigured dead marched after us.

* * *

Didn't think it would be that easy, did you? Naw, the story's just getting into the second act now. This is where the REAL party starts...

Read and review!


	8. Chapter 8: Lock and Load

Alright. Guys, you've got to be honest with me. Is this chapter rubbish?

Even when I was writing it, I took a few glances at it and wasn't quite sure if I'd written it too well. I mean, I'm not sure if I made the others overpowered, or not powerful enough, or... Anything, really. Also the fight scene didn't seem to be great work, either.

Maybe it's just me seeing flaws, but I really need y'alls reviews and critique on this chapter. Heck, maybe I'm just worn out from a tiring class week and I'm seeing things, but... Oh well. If this turns out to be rubbish, I'll probably give it a re-edit either later today or tomorrow.

On an unrelated note, that screenshot for FNaF 2 is creeeeeeepy. Looking forward to what the sequel will bring, though!

* * *

I kept my foot hard on the gas, eyes wide and breathing heavily as I checked my rear-view mirror. Sure enough, the pizzeria had fallen to the armies of Golden Freddy, and now they were beginning to spread through the small shopping mall. I looked at the clock; at 3:15 AM, nobody was likely to be around except janitors and night watchmen, so at least there were less bodies for him to convert to soldiers… I shuddered at this. Was that all I could hope for now? I shook my head. There'd be time to consider that later; for now, we had to think of survival. I kept going, heading back to my apartment, before glancing back to the others.

"We're headed back to my place. That should be at least reasonably safe until we can figure out what to do…" As I spoke, I looked the four of them over. During training and tactics discussion, as well as the recent retreat, I hadn't had a chance to look over their new modifications, but now seemed to be a good time. As I did so, I couldn't help but smile; the four of them had good work done.

Freddy himself now had a much cleaner, more rigid look to him; his suit had been reinforced in order to make it harder for any damage to his joints to cripple him, and he also had the teeth and jaw servos improved to provide a powerful bite. His jaw could break bones now, I was sure of that… I noticed him fiddling awkwardly with the mechanism I'd set up in his paw, before grinning as a set of razor-sharp claws came from his fingertips; a special treat for any of Golden Freddy's bots… although with the numbers I saw, it probably wouldn't have done much good. I'd also given him a special gift; his tie had a pair of razors in it, allowing him to throw it as a weapon.

Yes, I watch too many James Bond movies.

He, and all the others, also had an upgrade to their eyes; they could flip from the normal, visible spectrum, to infrared/night vision, to thermal, to a special 'cloaking' view that would make their eyes appear black again. They also all had transmitters near their animatronic 'ears', with the antenna for Freddy's coming out near his hat. I'd also added special shielding to the backs of their necks to prevent them from being controlled again.

Bonnie also had a few upgrades; besides the reinforcement on her jaw and suit, she also had an upgrade to her leg servos that would allow her to pounce further as well as deliver a nasty kick to anyone on the receiving end, which showed in the added bulk behind her costume. She also had the claw additions that Freddy had, as well as her ears being able to notice any audio signals as well as radio waves, which would hopefully give us an advantage against any of Golden Freddy's commands as well as the location of any of his 'troops'.

Chica had similar reinforcements, as well as a boost to her ventilation system. After the smoke grenade, I'd taken a look and seen that it was clogged with grease and assorted ancient pizza ingredients, so the cleanup and repair had been a major boost. I'd also installed retractable blades onto her wingtips, as well as a flight gyro that would hopefully give her more stability if she chose to try and glide. I'd also upgraded her little 'cupcake' as a remote drone, which would feed audio and video signals directly to her. That could be useful another time, for sure.

Foxy had the same reinforcements as well as some additional ones; the new costume had been reinforced against blades, allowing her to use her weapons in new and better ways. I'd also given her teeth a good cleaning and sharpening, hoping she could use the powerful jaws to take care of anyone who'd try and grab her. In addition, I'd sharpened her hook, as well as her cutlass, giving her a sheath to store it in at her side. I'd also given her a few throwing daggers in assorted sheaths on her lower body, and one strapped to her tail in case of emergencies. I'd finally added some sound dampening to her feet, allowing her to move at top speed without being heard.

I shook my head, a smirk on my face. They were heavily upgraded, and ready for combat… But then I frowned.

How did Golden Freddy get the drop on us? How did he know that we were about to put our own plans in motion? I honestly had no clue, but the best thing to do now is to retreat and regroup, and start figuring out a new plan. And I had just the destination in mind…

A bit further down the road, I pulled into my old apartment and parked the truck, looking to the others as they climbed out. "This place should be safe enough. I've got it rigged up just in case of any break-ins, and I've got plenty of supplies in there to hold out, as well as a few other things that could be useful. For now, let's get in and figure out what we're going to do." They nodded, still dumbstruck by what had happened earlier, and followed me in.

My apartment was a fairly simple place; living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom as well as an outer porch and storage room that I'd reworked into a workshop for some of my side projects. I dropped off my bags in the workshop and put a few things away before I heard the others speaking out in the main room.

"…Hopeless! We're in so…" That was Chica. It's pretty clear that she's shaken up by the whole thing.

"…Calm down, we're all…" Freddy. Apparently he was trying to keep things together.

"…What if we can't? There's so many…" Bonnie's voice.

I shook my head before hearing a knock on my door, turning to look as Foxy poked her head in. I waved at her to enter, continuing to put the tools away and pack the box. She approached, looking rather nervous as she stepped over to my side.

"…I wanted to… Thank you. For trying, at least… I-I mean, none of us expected this to happen, and the best thing for you to do now is run, so…" She sighed, before gently hugging me. "…Thank you for not abandoning us." I nodded, embracing her as well, feeling her shaking slightly in my arms.

"What're we going to do, Alex? There's just so many of them… And I don't think any of us are equipped to deal with that. We were expecting ten, maybe twenty… He had an absolute army." I sighed, stroking Foxy's fur, before replying.

"I don't know. But what I do know is that we're not giving up." With a nod, I let her go and smiled, pulling a par of hard plastic cases from under my workbench.

"Let's go catch up with the others. Maybe we can figure out a plan." She nodded, and we left the workshop, holding onto my cases. In the living room, Freddy and the others were looking more than a little frazzled, with Chica sitting on my chair curled up slightly, and Bonnie and Freddy… They were snuggling on the couch? I can't help but chuckle; it was clear they liked each other. I can't help but smile a bit; the fact that they can feel emotions like regret, fear… Love…

These four were no monsters. They were allies. Comrades.

Friends.

I squeezed Foxy a bit closer, before clearing my throat and setting the cases down on the table. They looked up, wondering what I had planned for this. I sighed slightly, rubbing my forehead before speaking.

"Right… I didn't see that coming. We've got a bit bigger of a problem here than I expected, guys; I'd hoped what I already upgraded you with would've been enough, but considering how many animatronics I saw out there… We're gonna need some help. Hopefully this makes Adams believe me about this whole thing…" I proceeded to open up the cases. "You guys have your armor and weapons, so time for me to get mine out." With that, I flipped the lids over, letting them see what was inside.

There, within the two of them, was my old SWAT gear. For some reason, they'd let me keep it in a strictly off-the-books way. I looked it over; Kevlar body armor, arm and leg protection, helmet with face shield, and my tactical gear and vest, including a few modifications I'd made after I'd left. On the two thigh pieces, I added slots to stash weapons like batons, or the heavy steel machetes that were in the weapons crate as well as spaces for revolver speedloaders, specific for my twin .357 Python revolvers. Finally, a set of magazines for my M14 Carbine rifle, the weapon I'd become heavily adept with during my time with SWAT.

I pulled the gear out and started suiting up. This situation had just begun, and it was only going to get worse from here. The leg pieces went on, as did the arms. I managed to get the Tac vest and body armor on, holstering all of my weapons and ammunition and slinging the M14 over my back. Finally, I slid the helmet on and looked around; I was ready, but the others were decidedly less so. I moved to help, but then heard my phone go off. It was Adams; this should be good…

"Redding here."

His voice was clearly frantic as he spoke. "Alex! Oh thank everything, you're alive. Listen, I've currently got what is known as a full crisis on my hands right now. You were right; there's an army of bloody, violent animatronics walking the streets, and we're getting reports of home invasions and burglar alarms… Dang it! Another cruiser just went dark." He took a breath. "Alex, it's bad in here. I've got multiple alarms, and the radios are full of all this static about some 'joy of creation'. Sound familiar?" I swallowed hard; apparently, Golden Freddy was pulling out all the stops tonight… He continued. "Listen, I need you to get your four buddies over here and pick up all that gear you asked for. It's all set, just how you requested it."

I grinned; apparently things weren't so lost after all. "Best news I've had all night, Joseph. I'll get them over-" SLAM. That sound came from my door. I looked up, eyes wide as I saw all four of the crew accounted for… And then heard another loud slam from my door. They found me. "Joseph, I've gotta go; they're here. I'll get there as soon as I can, just hold onto that gear I asked for…" I hesitated, before speaking again. "And try to stay alive. I might need some backup."

"Gotcha. I'll do what I can, Alex. You stay alive too." Click. With that, I looked to the door as the rogue animatronics smashed against it, seeing as the wood splintered and broke. I looked at the others, before speaking. "Guys, get in the storage room and keep your voices down. I'll take care of these scumbags." They hesitated, but followed my instructions. The storage room door shut just as they smashed in my front, and I drew both revolvers. Their black eyes met mine, and they began to screech.

"Oh, shut up already." With that, I opened fire, the heavy rounds busting through their heads and dropping the first two without a problem. I kept up my firepower, putting them down one after another, until my revolvers were empty. Seeing that they were no longer under fire, the animatronics charged, and I swore; apparently I'd only been able to drop around eight of them, and there were a dozen now barging in. I unsheathed my machetes and set to work.

Stepping in quickly, I decapitated the first one to enter, sending the head flying against the wall. The second one charged me, punching me in the midsection, his fist bouncing harmlessly against the armor; his reward for the effort was a blade coming down and splitting the upper half of his head. The third grabbed me from behind and bit down on my arm, causing me to cut one of his own off before following it up by stabbing my blade between his black eyes. Another two of them came rampaging in, fighting in tandem; every time I got ready to aim an attack at one, the other would punch, slash, or bite at me to prevent the attack from landing. I dove back behind the kitchen counter to grab some distance and catch my breath.

That didn't work too well, as they smashed through the wooden cabinets and grabbed me from behind, attempting to stab into me. I sighed in annoyance and proceeded to cut their hands off, causing them to scream in rage and pain, before silencing them with twin stabs to the throats. I stood, seeing the remaining seven monsters still roving, and stood my ground to fight them off as they screamed, charging me with tooth and claw ready. I braced myself, waiting to feel the impact and the pain-

And nearly fell over in surprise as the four original bots busted the storage door open and set to work. Freddy came in and stab-punched his way through one before tossing his tie into the head of another while Bonnie leaped and delivered a powerful rabbit-kick to the skull of another, smashing it instantly. Chica wasn't to be outdone, performing a razor-winged spin that decapitated two more as Foxy finally made her appearance, stabbing the last one through the chest with her cutlass before running her hook through its head.

Finally, they were all dead for now, and I took this as a chance to reload my revolvers and look to the four of them. "Thanks, guys." They nodded and smiled, before looking to the door. I spoke again. "This place isn't safe. We need to get going, and I know just where to head to." I led them back out to my car, fighting off a few straggling bots as we piled in, before pulling out and hauling over to the police station. I led them inside… And straight into roughly half a dozen SWAT and Riot Control officers, armed and aiming at us. I put my hands up immediately and gestured for the others to do likewise. "Hey, wait! We're friends; Joseph Adams is expecting us." At the name, they nodded and stood down, one raising his helmet and identifying himself as Sgt. Rodes.

"You Redding?" I nodded. "C'mon. Adams left the gear you asked for in here." With that, he led us into a storage room and flipped the light on. As it came on, I grinned; Adams had outdone himself…

In the room was all the gear I'd asked for and more, as well as the ammunition to put through it all. Freddy and the others were clearly shocked at how much firepower I'd managed to requisition in such a short time. Rodes nodded and left the room, leaving us with the firepower within. I headed over to the armory, gesturing for the others to accompany me. "Well guys, you know how all this works. Lock and load." They nodded, gleefully grabbing equipment and preparing; Freddy elected to grab a .45 pistol and stick it in his belt along with a pump-action shotgun strapped to his back. Bonnie had chosen a 9mm full-auto to compliment the bolt-action rifle she'd taken a shine to. Chica, shockingly enough, picked out a pair of Uzis and a few extra clips. Foxy's choice made me grin a bit; she'd picked out a heavy caliber Desert Eagle handgun and little else.

A few moments later, we headed over to the SWAT garage, looking over an armored breach van and piling in. I sat down next to Foxy and looked the others over; they all had a nervous look in their eyes, but there was also a second thing they all shared.

Determination. The four of them were ready to do whatever it took to take back their home and end this curse. With that in mind, I banged my fist against the side of the van; Rodes had offered to drive us to the primary 'hot zone' so we could go to work. As the van rumbled along the roads, I saw Bonnie and Freddy talking in faint whispers, before hugging each other close and even pulling Chica into the embrace, then looked to Foxy.

To say she looked scared was an understatement. I knew that this entire situation was uncomfortable to her; she wasn't used to fighting, or having to use weapons, but Golden Freddy had forced out hands on that. With a small nod, I wrapped an arm around her, trying not to blush too hotly as she leaned against me, whispering in my ear.

"Alex… I'm scared." I nodded, softly petting her.

"We're gonna be okay, Foxy. We'll survive this." She nodded, before hesitating and speaking again.

"Promise me something, Alex…" I leaned down to hear what it was she had to ask. "Promise me that you won't let them take me back. Destroy me before you let them put me back in that living nightmare."

I went silent. Does she realize what she's asking me to do? I shook my head and sighed, before taking her paw. "I can't promise you that… But," I continued speaking, as she looked downcast for a moment, "I will promise you this. No matter what happens out there, I'll always be here for you. You're not alone anymore." She hesitated, before nodding slightly. Then, she did something I never expected.

Foxy leaned up and softly kissed me, dead on the lips.

* * *

Read and review, all. Like I said, I really need to know if I borked this chapter up; if I did, I'll give it a proper redo.


	9. Chapter 9: Downtown Showdown

Ca-RIPES! College is really a bear sometimes, folks. Sorry this update took so long to get out.

A bit of a good news-bad news thing here, folks; this story really only has two, maybe three chapters left before it wraps up...

BUT! The adventures of Alex Redding won't end there; after all, there's a heck of a lot more going on than just Gold Freddy's invasion force, and this kind of incident can't be covered up very easily.

So, I'm pleased to announce that there will be an Extended Universe for Alex Redding and the animatronic crew! After this story ends, I'll be doing some revamping and adjustments to a number of chapters (primarily 1 and 2; I am not proud of those) as well as the beginning of a series of sub-stories revolving around them, and the world that has given them life.

I attempted to give a bit of reasoning to why the animatronics are sentient in this chapter. Not sure if it worked well or not, but it seems to make sense in my mind. What do y'all think?

Right, enough of my blathering. On with the show!

* * *

My mind froze for a long moment. Foxy, the female animatronic pirate fox that had for the first four nights of this week been trying to kill me, currently had her muzzle pressed against my face, kissing me. My mind was trying to figure this out, trying to put it together and figure out a good response, when instinct kicked in and everything else became a non-issue as I wrapped my arms around her, holding the kiss for a brief moment before separating. I looked her over; somehow, even though she was a machine, I saw a spark of embarrassment, confusion, and… Something else in her eyes. Something that I had a feeling was reflected in mine, if the heat I felt on my cheeks and the sensations within me were anything to go by. All I knew was that I wanted to hug her, hold her, tell her everything would be okay…

Then Freddy cleared his throat, and suddenly it all came back. We were in the back of a SWAT van, heading in to stop an invasion of biomechanical androids from taking over the city… Wait a second… I looked out the rear window; somehow, this didn't seem like the way to the pizzeria. I knocked at the glass, getting the attention of the driver, who looked back. "Hey, where the heck are we going? This isn't the way back to Fazbear's."

The driver looked at me confusedly. "You didn't know? We're headed downtown. Your buddy Adams is in trouble; apparently he's caught in a crossfire between those rampaging robots and a drug gang shootout." I stared, eyes wide. "Yeah, apparently this gang thought the animatronics were some kind of new way of carting their products around, so they ended up losing a couple guys before realizing what was going on and opening fire. Adams and his team responded, but it seems like the gangs would rather have them and the bots fight it out and then clean up the rest. Then y'all showed up, so we figured you'd be on your way to bail him out…" The driver hesitated. "If ya wanna head for Fazbear's, we can. But Adams isn't gonna hold out much longer under that kind of siege."

I paused, shaking my head. Great, one more delay… It wasn't even a choice. "Take us downtown. We'll bail Adams out and let the gangbangers and the bots duke it out, clean up what's left after the dust settles. Hopefully they'll buy us some time to get back to the restaurant and finish this mess." The driver nodded and focused back on the road as I turned to look at the others. "Change of plans, guys…" I explained the situation. Freddy nodded, although he did look irritated at the diversion. I understood; after all, I wanted to get this taken care of, myself.

But sometimes, you have to make sure your priorities are set right. Adams has been my friend since my days back on SWAT, and we'd bailed each other out of bad situations more times than I could count. Time to keep the streak alive, I guess…

We were about to pull into the main square of downtown, where Adams' last location was. Two blocks away, we already heard the sounds of gunfire, yelling, and that familiar banshee screech from Golden Freddy's drones. The van stopped, and I gestured for the others to pile out and stick close. I couldn't help but chuckle somewhat; Freddy had point, the shotgun unlimbered and ready to go, followed by Chica and Foxy. Bonnie and I held up the rear, our respective long range weapons ready to go at a moment's notice.

It would take a while to get to the downtown square if we wanted to keep undetected, so I took some time to chat with Bonnie. Idly curious about why she chose the sniper rifle, she responded with a grin and pointed upwards. "Because I can jump, silly. I can get some altitude and nail them a lot easier." She frowned slightly, tilting her head. "Although whether or not I'll be able to hit anything I don't know. Never used one of these, but I did download some specs on weapon use and maintenance."

I shrugged, checking the sights on my own rifle. "Guess now's a good time to find out whether firsthand experience is better than online wording." Bonnie nodded, then looked awkward as she spoke once more. "Yeah… Question for you." I tilted my head, looking over to her.

She spoke a moment later. "So… I guess it was obvious, but you and Foxy… You like each other?"

I had to stop for a moment, nearly stumbling as I heard that question. This took some thought, honestly… Did I like her? Heck, was it even possible? She was mechanical, and I was, well… If I got cut, or shot, I'd bleed. I lose a limb, it's gone. I die… I shook my head to clear the thoughts and focused in on one point. And with that, my answer became clear.

"Yeah, Bonnie. I think I do." I felt the blush spreading across my face, and was grateful that the others had elected to move a bit further ahead to give us some warning. All the same, I could absolutely feel Bonnie's grin as she looked at me. But I did have another question… "Alright then, since we're asking embarrassing stuff… I've gotta know something about you. And, well, everyone else." She studied me, before nodding.

I took a breath, and spoke. "You guys are the most advanced artificial intelligence that I have ever seen in my life. Heck, we have military drones that are less intelligent than you four are, and you guys are, well… You're animatronic entertainers at a pizza parlor." I shrugged, looking her over. "I just have to know… How? How did you four manage to become sentient, and why didn't you mention it to anyone else?" Bonnie looked awkward for a moment, unable to meet my gaze as we stood there, silent. Finally, after a few long moments, she spoke.

"Alex… It was the kids. All the children that came through the pizzeria, and the five that were murdered there… The kids did it." I froze up for a moment as I looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "We were never supposed to be sentient, outside of interaction with the children in the restaurant and each other. That's all we had programmed in; no imagination, no intuition, nothing. But over the years, we slowly began adding more and more observations into our memory about how children – and how humans in general – functioned. We learned their habits, their thoughts, their emotions… Understand, we were designed to be as realistic as possible in order to truly transport the kids to a fantasy world. Part of that was our ability to learn, and to imitate. As we learned about emotions, we started asking the staff about it more and more often; they responded as best they could, and we catalogued everything we could. Management was proud; they figured we'd be some of the most fantastic child-friendly AI in existence."

"Then came the murders." I nodded, remembering the story; someone that was possibly a former night guard at Freddy Fazbear's murdered five children. The bodies were never found, and the killer disappeared shortly afterwards. Bonnie continued. "Up until then, we didn't know much about how life or death worked. We only understood a faint amount of it, because occasionally the children would talk about a pet or relative that had died, and we were able to comfort them. The murders were a harsh wake-up call for all of us; they made us realize what life – and what being alive – was truly all about. That was the second thing that brought us sentience. It was nearly there, but we were still not complete. The third thing we were missing…" Bonnie hesitated, then spoke again. "The last piece we were missing was love. And that, we learned from one of the greatest security guards to come through after the incident: Mike Schmidt."

My eyes widened. Mike was known as the sole survivor of a full week, and the only guard to voluntarily leave the restaurant night shift instead of 'vanishing'. How did he come into play? Bonnie continued. "On his final night, we had him cornered. His power was out, and it was five minutes until 6 AM. We were under Golden Freddy's control, and he ordered us to go, to take him and kill him, just like all the others. We didn't want to, but none of us were powerful enough to break his control. When Freddy came out, Mike stood up to him and said one thing. He asked if he could leave a message for his girlfriend, telling her that he loved her. Golden Freddy let us relent, and he called." Bonnie sighed, her eyes downcast. "Hearing him cry, and try to explain what was happening to his girlfriend… It made us realize that he was heartbroken. We knew what that kind of pain was secondhand, but seeing Mike so broken after coming so close… We finally had the last piece. We knew what it was like to love. So, that one time, we were able to break Golden Freddy's orders, and we filed away back to our positions. By the time he got control back, it was 6 AM and Mike was gone."

My mind reeled. This was one heck of a story; an almost unbelievable one, really… And yet Bonnie's voice carried truth to it. I believed her. "I still don't know quite how it all worked, but it did. None of us question it, really… But yes, Alex. We all can feel, and we can think, and we can love." I had to wait for a moment at that, mulling over her response. It sounded like a bad sci-fi story, but in a way it had a hint of truth to it. With that, I shook my head. It didn't matter much; apparently, the imagination and innocence of children, combined with feeling loss and understanding love, had advanced their AI to this point. With a shrug, I spoke. "Thank you, Bonnie. You didn't need to tell me that, but thank you." She smiled and gave me a quick hug, before we caught up to the others and I looked around.

We were in a back alley, facing the town square… And a warzone. It looked like three covered locations; on one side, behind a few fancy looking sports cars and vans was the drug gang, who continued putting fire across the way into wave after wave of Golden Freddy's drones. They were marching from the direction of the pizzeria before splitting into two columns; one going after the gang, and the other moving towards a pair of SWAT vans, where I saw Adams and his team putting fire support down, cutting down mech after mech. It seemed like the siege wouldn't last much longer, as the drug gangs looked strung-out and their shooting was starting to lessen while it was clear there were injuries on SWAT's side. Suddenly, one of the drones turned and looked directly at me, raising its arm to point and starting to scream.

I pulled my rifle to bear and shot it directly in the head. "Shut up." With that, it was on. The drones diverted, attempting to swarm me; apparently, we had become primary targets for Gold's 'Joy of Creation', and they were looking to deal with us in a very severe way. I started yelling orders. "Fan out! Split them up and take them down!" They nodded and confirmed, and I set to work, laying down fire into the swarm that was currently coming my way. I couldn't help but grin as the old training reflexes kicked in; ten rounds in a magazine, semi-automatic fire. Aim for headshots, drop stance, control breathing…

BAM

BAM

BAM

Three drones dropped in a matter of seconds. I shifted seamlessly from target to target, unloading my first magazine.

Grab change of mag, hit release button, slam new mag into place, release slide, continue firing. Every shot managed to land in a clean hit, dropping another handful of drones without major issue. Rinse and repeat, down to two spare magazines. I slammed one of them in and continued firing, just as I heard gunshots from somewhere else, managing to drag my gaze away for a moment to check on the others.

Freddy was hard at work, combining his razor claws with the shotgun well, although he did seem to have a distinct preference for the former, considering how many drones were currently shredded at his feet. As two came up behind him, he swung around and fired the shotgun twice, ripping their heads clean off before using his razor tie to put down a third, taking a moment to load the shotgun and grab it before setting to the fighting once more.

Chica was taking full advantage of her enhanced gliding ability, doing sweeps over a small crowd of drones and firing her twin Uzis into them, scoring a number of kills in a small amount of time. Combined with the occasional razor-winged spin, and she was making quite the impression on the drone armies, although I did have to worry on occasion about her ammo.

Bonnie had managed to jump up quite a ways and get a bearing on the square from a fire escape, putting her sniper rifle to work and covering the SWAT team; they'd seemed confused at first, but a glance across the square confirmed that they were grateful for the help. She waved down at me, then took a shot just in time to blast one of the drones off of my flank. I nodded, then looked around for Foxy.

It appears Foxy was taking advantage of her speed; a combination of her cutlass, the pistol, and her throwing knives were enabling her to cut a bloody swath through the hordes, heads rolling and animatronic body parts falling around her. My eyes widened as two of them approached her from behind, one grabbing onto her tail. Quickly, I brought my rifle up and took a shot; it dropped the drone, giving her time to decapitate the other one. She nodded my way in gratitude, and I smiled, feeling that familiar warmth on my face.

Finally, the casualties seemed to be enough for the drones to choose a full retreat, and they started rapidly marching out of the square… Albeit still carrying roughly four of the gang members with them. I cringed; as much as they were scum, nobody deserved the fate they were being brought to. The remainder of the drug gang dispersed, retreating into the shadows and giving us an opportunity to rush across the square and catch up with the rest of the SWAT team. I grinned as I caught up with Adams, giving him a quick fist-bump and nodding. "Bloody good to see you again, old friend."

Adams grinned, looking over my entourage with a raised eyebrow. "They're safe, man. They're with me; the original deal. I'm guessing you don't need introductions…" He shook his head, a smirk on his face, before turning serious once more. "This is a bad situation, Alex. Those things are freaking everywhere; for now they've just been pulling druggies and gangbangers for their little army, but we've heard word about movement towards residential areas. Apparently they're going for a full-blown assault."

I swore; if they took the residential district, Golden Freddy's army would double, easily. We had to work fast. "Listen, the only way to shut this insanity down is to get back to where they all started; the pizzeria. If we can take down the head of this invasion, the rest of them will be dealt with quick and easy. With no leader, it'll be a straightforward mop-up operation to get rid of the rest. Can y'all get together and bring us over?" Adams' face screwed up in a grimace; apparently he was stressed out just as much as we were about this mess. "Can't do it, Alex. We need to get together and defend residential, if that's what they're doing… But we can let you borrow one of the vans."

I swore under my breath and looked at the others. Were the five of us enough to take down whatever Golden Freddy had in store for defense at his main stronghold? With that, I shook my head. "It'll have to be enough. Alright, man… Thank you." Adams nodded, then led us over to one of the two vans; he and the remaining SWAT members were piling into the other, except for Adams himself. I tilted my head. "Aren't you rolling out?" He grinned, shaking his head and climbing in the driver's seat of our van. My eyes widened.

"Alex, we've always rolled straight into the mouth of the problem side by side. You think the animatronic apocalypse will be any different for us?" I stared for a long moment, before reaching over and fist-bumping Adams once more. "Thanks, man." With a nod, I climbed into the back, taking my seat next to Foxy and trying to reload my rifle, restocking as best I can.

I didn't notice that Foxy had started to lean up against me until I finally had the ammo restocked and in my belt, wondering what the weight against me was, before smiling and wrapping my arm around her middle and pulling her close to me, a smile on my face as I look down at her. "I don't know how any of this is possible, and honestly I don't care. But I promise, we'll have time to figure out the details after this. We're going to finish this and walk out all right, Foxy." I squeezed her hand gently, and she smiled at me, still looking nervous. With an intense blush burning on my face, I leaned down and kissed her softly on the cheek.

It was strange, kissing something I knew to be artificial, and yet to me it felt as natural as breathing – and judging by the way Foxy froze up, it had the intended effect on her. I heard a faint chuckling from the others and looked up; Freddy was grinning at me knowingly. "Shut it, Fazbear. Look to your left, and then you can laugh at me." Sure enough, Bonnie was leaning against Freddy's shoulder, hugging him affectionately and almost clinging to him. Seeing this, Freddy couldn't help but chuckle softly, tipping his top hat at me and remaining silent for the rest of the trip.

Finally, we arrived and piled out of the van, looking over the pizzeria. It was eerie, almost; besides the glass in front being broken, and the occasional patrolling drones, it looked exactly how I expected it to. The same way it looked on every night as I pulled up and prepared for my shift. Looking it over, I cracked my neck.

I really better be getting overtime pay for this…

* * *

Looks like the final battle is nigh, folks. But what's going to happen inside the walls of the pizzeria?

Read and review!


	10. Chapter 10: Storming the Pizzeria

And another chapter comes out at last! Again, sorry it's been taking me so long. College is a timesink and a half, so I've basically fallen into a routine of using Fridays as my writing time.

And so begins the penultimate chapter in this story; that's right, folks. The battle's going to be decided after the next chapter. I've already got it fairly well laid out in my mind, just need to write it... But you'll have to wait for that until next Friday! :P

No real announcements; just getting ready to put the final touches on this story and get ready to start working on both the re-edits and EU. Which reminds me... If any of you have suggestions for ideas in the EU, feel free to PM them to me! I always love seeing new ideas.

Anyway, on with the show!

* * *

I stopped for a moment, hesitating as I started to think. There weren't too many patrolling drones, but I still didn't just want to charge in gung-ho. We had to get to the security office; once I was in there, I could get some intel through the cameras. I relayed my idea through the others, and received nods in return. "Alright, then here's the plan. I don't think whatever they're doing will be using the kitchen much, so that'll be our access point. We get in through the emergency exit there; it'll probably still be open from our escape. From there, we head down the hall to the security office, lock it down, and figure out where Golden Freddy himself is." I grinned. "Then we take him apart, piece by piece." This got a few grins from the others, and I led them over to the kitchen entrance and peered in. What I saw nearly made me puke on the spot.

Bodies. Dozens of them, some still bleeding faintly from their wounds. Apparently Golden Freddy had found a use for the kitchen, and especially the freezers; cold storage for the 'endoskeletons'. I choked back my nausea, leading the team in. Freddy's eyes bulged, Bonnie gasped, Foxy looked the way I felt, and Chica had murder in her eyes. "That lousy… Ruined my kitchen…" She muttered under her breath. Adams was taking it the worst; poor guy looked like he was going to lose his lunch, if he even had any left. With a grim look on my face, I slowly cracked the door leading out to the dining room. Hopefully we'd be able to just slip around the corner and down the East Hall… Seeing what was inside made me quickly abandon that idea.

The entire dining hall had been turned into a giant construction area for Golden Freddy's drones. Each table had several sets of bloody tools and equipment, as well as a tattered, bloodstained costume sitting on it. From where I was able to watch, I could see the drones hard at work; they'd take one of their captives or one of the bodies, put it on the table, and forcibly stuff it into the suit. After cleaning up the gore from the process, they set to work with bonesaws, screwdrivers, and wiring. I winced as I saw them cut one body's skull open, removing his brain and replacing it with a CPU box. A few other modifications and additions, and they closed up the suit. A few seconds later, the eyes would open and reveal the jet-black, pinprick white gaze that I was so familiar with at this point. The whole process… It was absolutely sick. I backed into the kitchen.

"The processing area's right outside there. Gold's turned the bloody place into a flipping factory for his drones." The others froze, and I couldn't blame them; all of us thought any manufacturing would be happening in the basement, not right out where it could be seen. A few thoughts about sabotaging the processing facility went through my head, but I had to keep my priorities straight; if we stop Golden Freddy, we might just cause all the other drones to power down… And time was of the essence. He was sending another wave to the residential section, and if he took that area then there was no chance of us stopping his army. I paused, trying to think of a plan-

And froze up as I heard a clunking sound outside the kitchen door. Crap and blast! They're probably coming to get more bodies to add to the army. No time to escape, no chance of a silent takedown… Unless… I motioned for all of them to back away from the door, then hid just on the inside of it, where it would swing open. With a bit of luck, there'd only be one drone and it wouldn't notice me hiding behind the door. I held my breath, easing my machete from its sheath, and stood by…

Luck smiled upon us, and there was only one drone that entered the room, walking idly towards one of the bodies. It bent over to pick the corpse up, and I quickly stepped in and drove a machete through its head. It dropped onto the pile and lay still. I gestured for the others to come out and follow me, before easing out the door. Keeping to the shadows, I managed to get around the corner and open the East Hall door, gesturing for the team to follow me in. The animatronics looked to be a combination of nauseated and enraged at what they saw, and Adams just looked like he was about to puke. We rounded the corner and I got a good look at the hall.

The place seemed absolutely trashed as we moved down it; bloodstains and assorted bits of fuzz scattering the area, probably from when Golden Freddy tried to catch us in the first place. As I slowly eased around, I was relieved to see two things; first, the office door was open, and second there was still light. The place was still powered. I led the way in and shut the blast doors as Adams entered. For his credit, he was able to hold himself together fairly well, especially considering he began partaking in the wonderful activity known as dry heaving the instant the doors locked. Chica quickly presented a bucket in front of him, and he gratefully took it, kneeling in front of it as I grabbed the tablet and powered it up.

"Good, the cameras are still operational…" I started glancing through. "Hmm… Both halls are clear, just a bit bloodstained. Supply closet has a bunch of spare parts and stuff in it, it's a bit gory-looking but there's not anything important as far as I can see. Kitchen feed's still offline…" I trailed off, flipping to the dining room. It was a sickening sight, but I had to look. "The… The other drones haven't noticed one of their number missing yet… Cripes. I count about nine others there…" Finally I switched cameras, unable to watch any longer as I went to Pirate's Cove. "The cove… Holy crap." I showed the tablet to the others – except Adams, who was still heaving.

Pirate's Cove was turned into a 'training ground' for the drones. After they were changed, it seemed like Gold had sent them there to get used to their new animatronic bodies, the clunking sounds as they adjusted for the movement and their new endoskeleton echoing through the audio feed. There looked to be around two dozen in there; a lot more than we were set up to take at this point, and we haven't even checked the basement… Foxy looked absolutely mortified; she was livid that her home was being used and abused in such a way. I rested a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, giving her arm a quick rub before going back to glancing through the feeds.

"Right… Show Stage has some kind of overseer's video camera set up. Probably Gold looks through that to keep tabs on what his worker drones are doing… Now for Backstage." I flipped the camera over and looked around, my eyes widening slightly. Every last spare part and costume had been taken from there; the place had been completely stripped clean for Gold's parts. All that was left were a pile of assorted body parts, and the floor entrance down to the basement. I shuddered slightly, remembering we were going to have to go there… Hmm… I need a plan. With all these drones on patrol in here already, we're not going to have a clean shot from here in the security office all the way to the basement. Not without a fight, at least… I snapped my fingers, having an idea. I turned to the others, just in time for Adams to stop heaving long enough to look at me.

"Right, we have a problem. The good news is I found where we're going to get into Golden Freddy's basement hideout. The bad news is it's all the way backstage, and to get there we're gonna have to get through both the…" I shuddered slightly. "…Processing plant and the 'training ground' in Pirate's Cove. It's not going to be easy; we've got at least 30 hostiles, and it's an enclosed space here. I have an idea on how to deal with them, though." The others tilted their heads, but Adams suddenly looked even greener than usual.

"Alex, you're not thinking of…" I grinned and nodded. "… Oh, heck no. If you want to play 'rabbit' and get their attention, you go right ahead. I ain't playing bait for a bunch of murderous machines." Bonnie looked confused, even a bit offended at that and opened her mouth to speak; I cut her off, and explained. "Playing 'rabbit' was a tactic that we used in some particularly nasty sweep and clears, especially against hardened positions. One guy goes out and makes some noise, gets a few people investigating. He leads them down to the rest of the team, and they do the takedown." Bonnie nodded, but Foxy looked unconvinced; I got the feeling she knew where I was going with this, but no better ideas came to mind.

"We'll never survive a frontal attack against those drones, so I'm going to go out there and play 'rabbit' to try and whittle them down. If we can get them to twenty or less, we'll be able to clear the rest in a normal takedown." The three of them nodded, but Foxy still looked uncomfortable, finally speaking up. "Um, Alex… I'm the fastest out of all of us. If anyone should play this 'rabbit' you're talking about, it should be me."

That hit me like a minor punch to the gut. Logically, I knew she was right, but… "It's a dangerous gamble, Foxy. You screw up, or even trip, and you'll get taken by them. Heck, if you don't grab cover fast enough when you lead them into our field of fire we might-" She cut me off. "I know what the risks are, Alex. But you'd be taking them just like I would… The difference is, I'm made of metal and you're made of, well…" She couldn't help but giggle. "Squishy stuff."

I could feel my face heating up even before Adams started laughing, rolling my eyes a bit. Foxy was grinning proudly, Adams' face was bright red with barely-restrained laughter, and even the other three bots were grinning ear to ear. "Yeah, yeah… Laugh it up. I'm still going." I rose, reaching for the door button before Foxy grabbed my hand and stopped me. "Alex, I'm serious. You've got that rifle; you'd be better suited to picking off the drones while I get their attention. Plus, if I get beat up any I can be repaired; if you take too many hits…" Her voice trailed off. I cursed under my breath; as much as I hated to admit it, she was right.

"…Alright, Foxy. You can play 'rabbit' on this one." She grinned, and I hesitated slightly before nodding once again. "Just… Be safe, okay?" She nodded, and I explained the plan once more; Foxy was going to run out to the construction hall and attract the attention of the others. If she could drop a few bots before heading back down to the East Hall, she would. Once she led them into the room, she'd drop prone and we'd open fire and take out her pursuers. One or two runs of this should hopefully thin their numbers out enough for us to sweep the rest of them. With the plan straight – and Adams still chuckling under his breath, the scumbag – we filed out into the hall and I crouched, bringing my M14 to the ready. The others also readied their weapons, Freddy keeping one eye on the tablet. I took a deep breath, then gestured for Foxy to go. She nodded and slipped out the door.

A few moments later, I heard her familiar screech, followed up by the banshee wails of the drones. I held my breath, focusing on the door and trying to keep my mind clear, even though I heard her handgun fire off a few times. A few long seconds passed, and I started shuddering a bit. Even though I knew she was probably trying to attract as much attention as possible, I couldn't help but worry about her. She'd never done something like this, and I wasn't there to help her, to protect her… My thoughts trailed off as the door flew open and she came rocketing in, diving to the ground and holding her hands over her head. A few seconds later, at least fifteen bots started filing into the hall, screaming out.

I didn't even have to say anything before we all opened fire. The hall turned into a firestorm of hot lead, tearing through the drones and dropping them like flies. In spite of the situation, I couldn't help but grin; Foxy had come through in a big way… With this amount down in one shot, we could clear the pizzeria out without much of a problem. As the last few drones fell, I looked down to Foxy. She had one eye open, looking at me. I grinned, opening my arms just as she rushed in and hugged me close. "I'm never doing that again, Alex." I chuckled, pecking her cheek. "Wouldn't dream of asking you, Foxy." And with that, we stood and looked to the door. I swapped clips in my M14, and we got ready to clear out the rest of the drones, kicking the East Hall door open and opening fire.

With two highly trained SWAT Officers and four armed animatronics – possibly with targeting, something I'll have to ask – the clearout wasn't a problem at all. The remaining drones dropped like flies, leaving the area completely vacant… For the most part. We heard clunking coming from the front, and I remembered there were still a few drones patrolling outside. "Hold up, let's make sure we don't get caught in a crossfire when we go down there." A few confirming nods, and we waited patiently for the drones to enter. Sure enough, two-by-two they came in and we put them down, giving it a moment between each kill as they finally cleared out. I nodded, looking around a bit. "Man, this place is-" "HELP! Someone, please!" Oh, crap! There's a survivor?! I rushed towards Pirate's Cove, the others following me. We looked up, and I gasped.

Sure enough, there was someone still alive and human here. He's tied up and looks heavily beaten, and his shirt has 'HERETIC' painted across it. I immediately rush over, pulling my machete out and starting to cut his bonds, before looking over to where the four bots were standing, frozen in place and staring at me. "Guys? Care to give me a hand here?!"

A long moment passed before finally, Freddy spoke up. "I wouldn't believe it if I didn't see it… Mike Schmidt."

I froze in place. Mike Schmidt… The only guy to survive a full workweek, plus overtime. I couldn't believe it… First off, I had to wonder why he was even here still. I shook my head, deciding to save my questions for when I had him freed and back to the security office, where he'd be safe. I finally managed to cut the last few ropes and free him, stepping back a bit but making sure to support him.

It's at that point I notice that he's staring at the bots, with more than a little bit of fear in his eyes. I start asking what's wrong, then slowly hesitate; it's pretty obvious what's wrong with him… Somehow managing to survive six nights of torment in here would do that to a person. With nothing but a nod, I wrap an arm around his shoulders, Adams doing likewise on his other side as we haul him out of Pirate's Cove, heading back to the Office.

As soon as he's back in the seat, he seems to be a bit more sensible, even though he's still throwing timid glances towards the animatronics. I decide to speak. "Look, I know it's hard to accept considering what you've been through, but these guys are on our side now. That golden Fazbear was pulling the strings since 1987, and tonight is when he decided to crank things up to the max. We're here to take him apart bolt by bolt." Mike seemed to nod, absorbing all this information, before speaking once again. "Al-alright, then… Geez, this is just going too fast. I-I was just at home, asleep… And th-then these things bust in and take me. I H-heard them calling me th-the 'heretic' or something… Apparently since I survived as the night guard, I w-was some kind of antichrist figure." I nodded, just taking that in… Apparently, managing to survive that kind of mess made you something special in Gold's eyes. Wonder what that makes me…

"Right, anyway. Mike, we're going down to end this, but there's still a lot of patrolling drones outside. You'll be about as safe in here as anything; there's still a hefty amount of power in the doors…" Mike stopped me there, a timid grin forming on his face. "N-not to worry. I know what I'm doing here…" With that, he took the camera tablet and looked back to us. "G-go down there and finish this. I-I'm going to keep watch, and do what I did best for a week…"

We filed out and started heading down the hall, before I hesitated and looked back to Mike. He'd shut the door on the other side, and was getting ready to shut the one on our side when he caught my eye. "Mike… What is it that you did in here, anyway? I mean, what was your role?" Mike grinned, although I could still see the nervousness in his face.

"What I did? Oh, that's easy. I was the bait."

* * *

Yeah, probably a bit obvious on that last note. I know it seemed a bit ham-fisted in how I brought Mike in, but I knew I had to mention him at some point.

Anyway, read and review!


	11. Chapter 11: It's Me

Well guys, here we are. The final main chapter of Battle of the Pizzeria. It's been one heck of a long road, hasn't it?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. You guys are the most amazing fans ever. I'm absolutely shocked that this story's made such a big hit on this community! You're all awesome, each and every one of you. The reviews, the favorites, everything... It makes me feel good to see that you enjoyed this road as much as I have.

I don't really have much to say except, well... On with the show!

* * *

I stared for a long moment, feeling very confused, before Mike continued to speak and explained it to me. "Y-you see, the management f-figured that a night guard w-would keep the animatronics distracted, and prevent them f-from leaving the pizzeria and g-going on a rampage… Apparently that didn't work too well…" I nodded, still confused as to what Mike would be doing. He spoke again. "Wh-when you go after Golden Freddy, odds are his drones are going to launch an all-out assault on this place to stop you… If I'm in the office, it'll distract them. Keep them busy long enough for you to hopefully finish the job." I stared. Did he even realize what he was volunteering to do? I opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off. "I've done this for over a week. I know their tricks, their minds. I can keep them busy until this ends. And if I don't make it…" He shrugged. "Just finish this off."

I stared. Mike Schmidt was one brave son of a gun, that much was clear. No words were needed; I clapped him on the shoulder and nodded, a gesture he returned before disappearing into the security office. With that, I moved back out to the dining room to catch up with the others, who were currently stacking up on the backstage door, ready to breach and enter. I gave a nod, and Adams kicked the door open, clearing the way for the bots to move in and clear out the backstage. As soon as we entered, we all retched slightly; the sight and smell of rotting body parts was pervasive through backstage. Apparently, this was where Gold was putting all of the human 'pieces' that he replaced… Adams was turning a bit green as we entered, before moving towards the basement entrance. We opened the hatch, and with me in front, slowly descended into the basement…

We froze up as soon as we entered. This place was an absolute wreck! Animatronic parts, bloodstains, assorted machines and even a few pieces of what I hope wasn't human were scattered around this massive, cavernous room. On the far end, there was a gigantic computer bank, complete with several monitors attached to the wall. I shuddered to see that one of them was showing all the pizzeria camera feeds… This must be where Gold controlled his animatronic army. Looking around, I didn't see any trouble, so we grouped up to talk for a moment.

"Guys, it looks clear… I don't trust it. Adams, you're the computer expert, check out that rig and see if you can find some way to shut the whole thing down. We'll cover you." He nodded, and we started moving towards the workstation… And heard a deep, rolling laugh, complete with static and interference. I turned around just in time to see the lights flickering, before going out for a moment… And when they came back on, Golden Freddy was standing in the beam, in all his bloodstained, dark-eyed glory. We froze for a moment, before I brought my rifle up to bear and opened fire. Adams took this as his chance to run for the computer bank, quickly setting to work. The lights around Golden Freddy flickered for a moment, and when they came back on, I froze once again.

Golden Freddy had three other golden, eyeless animatronics by his side. Three very familiar ones… I swore under my breath. I should've known; he built replicas of Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy; replicas that were now squaring off against us. I looked to the bots, who were getting ready for a fight as well, and started taking a few measures. "Chica, go cover Adams. Don't let them mess with him. The rest of you… Pick your target." With that, my eyes met Golden Freddy's own. "You're mine, bolt-brain." With that, the bots let out a scream of primal rage and charged, murder on their minds.

Bonnie apparently had chosen the Chica clone, taking the charge head-on with a shoulder ram, following it up with a powerful dual-foot kick to her middle. The clone dodged to the side, spinning a razor-wing attack and nicking part of Bonnie's ear. She squealed in shock and anger, before turning and firing her sniper rifle point-blank. The round passed harmlessly through the mech, and we realized that these were no ordinary drones… Golden Freddy had taking the actual metal endoskeletons for this one, meaning that weapons would do very little to them. This was going to be tricky… Bonnie came around, trying to roundhouse kick the drone as she dropped her rifle, coming in with a twin claw swipe in an attempt to tear the bot's face off. Chi-clone blocked the attack, countering with a swing of her own.

Freddy, meanwhile, had chosen to take on the Bonnie robot. After seeing his friend's sniper rifle failing, he tossed down the shotgun and came in with a stabbing punch. The fake Bonnie dodged it, landing a solid uppercut to Freddy's chin and then kicking him in the middle, forcing him back. Not-Bonnie tried to kick his face in, but Freddy grabbed her foot and threw her against the opposite wall, charging in and throwing his razor tie. It managed to lop off the upper half of Not-Bonnie's ear, causing her to scream out that banshee wail before charging at Freddy with swing after swing. Freddy managed to block them all – barely – and set to work with his counterattack, razor sharp claws tearing at pieces of her costume whenever they landed. However, it seemed like the leader of the Fazbear band had his work cut out for him…

Foxy was squared off with her clone, their pirate cutlasses crossed in a bitter duel. Occasionally, the clone tossed a menacing wink in my direction, sending a shudder down my back and an angry growl through Foxy herself, who was attempting to run her copy through with one well-placed cutlass strike. The copy managed to block this however, and tried to stab her with the dagger on her tail. Foxy dodged, screeching in rage as she barreled against her clone once more, trying to stab her through, even tossing a few of her own daggers towards the black-eyed duplicate, one of which managed to land a solid cut to her arm. The clone screeched, and the two pirate foxes were once more dueling, their cutlasses crossing with loud clangs and slashes.

Meanwhile, I was sizing up Golden Freddy himself, analyzing him and waiting for him to make the first move. Instead, he smiled at me and simply opened his arms. I charged him with both machetes, attempting to cut him open and end this-

And froze halfway through my stab, Gold's eyes glowing with malicious glee. "Now… A-Alex R-r-redding… Please, s-s-s-siiiiiiIIIiiiiit ad Wat-wat-watch the show…" And without any control, I was forced to sit next to him, watching as my friends battled his clones, Chica keeping a careful eye on the fighting for either a chance for her to help, or for any to attack Adams, who was bitterly cursing as he worked on the computer bank. Golden Freddy spoke once more. "Mr. R-r-redddiiiiiinng…" He spoke, his voice glitching and full of static. "Have y-you seen the newwwwss? Thi-thi-thiiiiS world is a ter-terrible place. Hu-huhuhuuuuu-mans had their cha-a-ance to make this world a pleasa-ant place to live… Instead, they ki-kill each other over diff-f-ffferences in ideology… Waging wa-a-a-r over the most trivial of reasooonnnnsss… N-now, I underst-st-staaaand your reluc-tance to join me… But think ab-bout it… A world united. No wa-war… No suf-f-f-fering… No deat-th… United in serv-v-ving the Joy of Creationnnnn…" I shuddered, seeing where this was going.

Bonnie, meanwhile, was in a bit of a tight spot against her opponent. Chi-clone screeched again, having backed her against a wall. The rabbit's eyes looked around quickly, trying to come up with a way out of this situation, before narrowing and staring at the clone. Quickly, Bonnie came in with a punch to the copy's middle, sending her reeling and following it up with an uppercut. The clone was staggered, swaying heavily on its feet for a long moment and beginning to smoke heavily. Bonnie took this as her opportunity, jumping off the wall, then coming in for a powerful kick, landing it square in the center of Chi-clone's head. Her beak caved in, then her face, then there was a sound like a small explosion, and the copy smoked heavily before falling, destroyed. I couldn't help but strangle a cheer, which was cut off quickly as Golden Freddy gestured to Bonnie, forcing her to freeze solid in place.

"As-as-as-as I was saying…" Golden Freddy continued. "The dark for-ces in this world have had their da-a-ay… C-come tomorrow, this ciiiiity will have fallen to my rule… And fr-from there, I will sprea-a-ad my influ-ence across the natioonnn… And once I have con-con-c-control of America, it will be-become the staging ground for the ressssst of the world to be conver-ted… The world will see the Joy of my Creation… A-a-and a Bright Future will be ush-ered in." Golden Freddy fixed me with a malicious glare. "Sa-a-adly… Yourself and Mike… Schmidt… Will not sur-survive to see this new-new-new glory… You have both pro-proven yourselves to be in-com-pat-ible… And will be des-destroyed…" With that, he grinned, eyes wild with hateful glee. "But no-not befooooore the all-l-lies you made fall to my wra-ath…"

Freddy was still duking it out with the clone of Bonnie, the bear's anger seeming to grow by the moment as he ripped into the copy's costume heavily, causing several sparks to leap from its internal structure with every stab and punch. Bonnie attempted to kick his head off again, but Freddy dodged, losing his hat in the movement, and grabbed his razor tie. He came back in with a backhand attack, sending the clone reeling and beginning to smoke heavily. With a gleeful, malicious grin, Freddy's eyes began to glow as he started playing Toreador, before pouncing the copy down, screeching loudly as he began stabbing and slashing with his claws and razor tie, leaving the Bonnie clone little more than a smoking, burning hulk. Freddy put his tie back on, and grabbed his hat, before turning to his golden counterpart… And, much like Bonnie, he froze in place.

Golden Freddy turned to me, eyes shining maliciously as he stooped down to my level, looking me in the eyes. "You-you-you see the futi-lity of fighting me, of couuursee... Chi-Chica will be of n-n-no conse-quence…" With that, Golden Freddy struck Chica with a glare, causing the chick to freeze, just like the others. Adams started working even faster, realizing that Gold may have just acknowledged his presence in the situation. "You-Your friend will not be ab-le to stop me… His ski-ill with tech-nology is ad-mirable, however it will not suf-fice to access the con-trol systemmm…" With an almost bored expression, Golden Freddy turned his attention to the battle between the twin Foxy bots, idly watching the combat continuing. "It-it-it is of nooooo… No conse-quence, even if he doessss… I ca-can just… Re-build…"

The Foxy robots were setting to each other like maniacs at this point. Every time one threw an attack, the other dodged and counterattacked. The original was now panting heavily, but her eyes continued to burn with rage… Until the clone kicked her in the chest, sending her reeling back, hitting the wall and slumping against it. With that, the evil clone turned to me, her voice speaking like rusty nails. "Th-theere… Now, master… C-Can I have him?" Golden Freddy grinned and nodded, and the clone began approaching me. I was helpless to move, trying to squirm away as she approached… Before being barreled into the wall by a ticked-off Foxy, who proceeded to begin taking her aggression out on the clone, stabbing and slashing at her. "GET-" Slash "AWAY" Stab "FROM" Smash "MY" Slam "MAN!" With that last word, Foxy stabbed her cutlass through her clone's head, twisting it firmly and finishing her off before extracting it, screeching loudly and beginning to charge Golden Freddy… Before freezing in place, just the same as the others.

"So-so-so you see, Mr. Reddiiiiing… It is futile to res-ist any longer. Your fri-iends are to be melt-ed down and used as scrap… And my reign is se-se-set to begin… Star-ting with this ag-gravating vixen…" With that, Gold produced an all-too-familiar chip, beginning to approach Foxy. "The-they shall return to my-my control… And this time… Nothing will re-move them. I have won, Mr. Reddiiinnggg… And no-not even the might of the mi-li-ta-ry will stop me."

I stared as he approached her, my mind racing as I remembered Foxy's words earlier… Her begging me, pleading for me to never let her fall under that control again… Sharing our stories, and finding ourselves never alone again… The kiss we shared… My promise.

I saw red, slowly climbing to my feet, feeling agonizing pain coursing through my muscles as I did so, drawing my machetes once more. "FREDDY!" I bellowed. He turned, eyes wide as he faced me. "It's not the military you have to fear, you psychotic scum…" Remembering the words I'd seen far too many times before, I gave him a wicked grin.

"It's me."

Golden Freddy screeched, charging me with claws and teeth extended. I let out a guttural scream of my own, machetes moving ahead of me as I charged, faintly registering Adams' screaming my name…

Time seemed to slow down around us as we charged. As I moved towards him, my mind flashed through memories, the road I'd taken to arrive at this point. The incident that got me removed from SWAT in the first place. Finding my new job at Freddy Fazbear's. The long four nights that I'd spent trying to survive against the animatronics. Fighting them, one after the next, on the fifth night. Breaking their control. Hearing their stories, and the stories of the pizzeria. Discovering allies in the form of the freed animatronics. Repairing them, helping them, and retreating from the restaurant alongside them. Fighting through downtown. Kissing Foxy. Stopping the facilities here from continuing their production. Watching them fall, one after the next, after defeating their clones.

Foxy, frozen solid, looking at me with pleading eyes.

I grit my teeth. I was not about to let this sadistic mechanical maniac harm her. Not again. With a final scream of rage, I plunged my machetes into his torso, my muscles burning as I stabbed and slashed him again and again –

I felt a set of white-hot daggers raking across my chest and looked down. Golden Freddy's claws had cut through my armor and straight into my chest, leaving several nasty gashes that were freely bleeding now. A bite to my arm nearly crushed it, and I felt the bone pulping against his powerful jaws, before opening them and preparing to bite down once more. As the agony moved through me, I screamed out once more, before taking my free arm and forcing the machete through his open mouth, through the endoskeleton's head and CPU, and out the other side. Golden Freddy let out one final scream of rage and pain, before falling to the ground limp. I looked up just in time to see Adams finally access the computer, shutting down the remaining drones. The original band starting to reanimate, looking and rushing to me. I stood there, battered and bleeding for a few more moments, before smiling at Foxy.

"H-hun… We did it… You're free." She smiled back, her eyes still showing intense concern. I stood for a few more moments, before finally falling to the ground as well. I heard the others screaming my name, but it sounded distant, far… As if they were calling to me from the far end of a long tunnel. Darkness clouded at the corners of my vision, attempting to swallow me whole. I locked my eyes onto Foxy's face, giving her one final, reassuring smile…

Then the world went black around me.

* * *

Oh no, Alex! D:

Story's not QUITE over, folks. There's an epilogue coming, probably over the weekend if I have time to write it. And then, of course, the EU is still to be written. Which reminds me once more; if any of you have any suggestions or story ideas for the Extended Universe, feel free to PM them to me! Furthermore, if you have any ideas for stories you want to write within it, feel free to message me and ask; the worst I can do is say 'no, thank you'!

I tried to make Golden Freddy's voice like a male version of Shodan from the System Shock games. Do y'all think I did a good job with it?

Read and review, all!


	12. Epilogue: A New Beginning

Well guys, here we are. The end of the road for this story... But, as I've said, not the end of this universe. I've got quite a few ideas for stories I want to write to follow this up, after all!

Now, I will say that I might take a break from writing for Five Nights at Freddy's for a bit, just because college is a pain and I want to take a bit of time to figure out where I want to go from here. I've got a lot of good ideas for stories, and I want to decide where to go from here. That being said, expect the occasional one-shot in this universe, as well as recuts of chapters one and two somewhere down the line.

One final request for all of you, for this story: pour over it, and try to find whatever plotholes and issues that you can. PM me with a list of them (with chapters I can find them at, please; it'll make my job infinitely easier) and I'll start chewing through them to get this story properly cut and edited.

So, on with the final chapter of Five Nights at Freddy's: Battle for the Pizzeria!

* * *

I heard voices. Muffled, muttering sounds. All I saw was darkness, a deep blackness throughout my vision. Slowly, I opened my eyes. My vision was blurred, foggy, unclear. I groaned softly, my voice sounding hoarse and raspy even to my own ears. Even so, I still felt a deep, stabbing pain in my chest as I did so. Man, I must be hung over as all blazes, what happened last night? I racked my brain trying to remember, causing the headache currently pounding between my eyes to increase in intensity –

Then I remembered everything. The pizzeria, the drones, the fighting in both streets and within the restaurant itself… Golden Freddy's claws and teeth tearing into me… I gasped, the surging pain in my chest and midsection reintroducing itself with a vengeance, just in time for my vision to clear… I was in a hospital. The local ER, from the looks of it… Looking down, I saw that my middle was heavily bandaged, and every movement and breath hurt like someone driving nails through me. Seems like somehow, I'd managed to survive Golden Freddy's last gift without being completely gutted, so I at least had that going for me… My left arm was immobilized for some reason; probably due to the nasty bite he'd given me. Looking around the hospital room, I smiled as I saw a familiar figure; it was Adams, dozed off in the chair across from my hospital bed. Looking around, I smiled as I saw an extra pillow sitting next to me. Grabbing it with my free arm, I took careful aim and tossed it at him. It bounced perfectly off his face, causing him to jump up swearing before looking at me and grinning.

"Alex! Freaking good to see you're awake, brother!" He smiled, moving over to my side where he grasped my hand and gave it a firm shake. "After I saw Gold all but gut you, I was worried that you were completely screwed. You're one lucky son of a gun, you know that?" I chuckled softly, nodding.

"So… I take it we won?" Adams nodded, a smile still on his face. "Dang right we did. After Gold fell, it was pretty easy for me to crack his security and power down all the drones. We've been cleaning up for the past couple days…" I hold up my hand and stop him, eyes wide. He chuckles and answers my unspoken question. "Alex, man… You've been out for almost a week now. You lost a lot of blood… We were all worried you weren't even gonna make it in the first place. Management at the pizzeria has been freaking out that they'd have a massive lawsuit on their hands…" He shrugged. "Doesn't matter much, though. Fazbear's is being demolished this weekend."

My eyes bugged out as I stared at him. Freddy Fazbear's was being wrecked? He nodded. "After the news crews got an eyeful of the drones, and saw the absolute horror show in the place itself, they were all but crucified on news media for the first three days. The only way they could get out of a full-on criminal trial was to demolish the restaurant and pay what little money they had out in reparations to everyone who had lost people… Not to mention the families of the security guards that died in the place. The investigation team managed to solve over thirty missing persons reports in this past week alone; that place was a busy little factory, that much is for sure."

My mind raced, tuning out much of what he was saying. If the pizzeria was being demolished… "What's happening to the others?" Adams shrugged. "Don't know. The manager did want to talk to you about them when you woke up… He should be outside. You've also got another guest; the 'heretic' as you remember him." With that, Adams gave my shoulder a gentle pat and knocked on my door. A few moments later, an older-looking gentleman walked in, followed by Mike Schmidt. I nodded to them both, recognizing the elderly fellow as Mr. Faz himself, the owner and founder of the restaurant. He sat down on one side of me, but my attention was turned to the frazzled-looking former night guard. "Mike, good to see you made it out of there."

He grinned and nodded, giving me a firm handshake. "Hey, I told you I was good at my job. Wouldn't have survived an entire workweek with overtime if I wasn't!" I nodded, fist-bumping him as I relaxed in my bed, a smile on my face. "But hey, look at you. You took it the worst out of all of us, and you're still standing. Guess that means I don't have much to complain about!" With a laugh and a nod, I turned my attention to Mr. Faz, who gave me a kind, tired smile.

"Mr. Redding, it's good to see you survived your encounter with my… Shall we say… Lesser elements. First off, let me be the first to thank you for putting an end to the nasty business surrounding that restaurant, and for taking care of the true villain in all of this." His smile faded slightly, eyes looking to me sadly. "However, I am sorry to say that your efforts haven't resulted in a completely happy ending. Many people have died, and the deaths of many more have been revealed in the following investigations. This, combined with the Bite of 1987 as well as the murdered children have essentially placed the final nail in the coffin. Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria has been condemned, and demolition has been scheduled for this weekend as I'm sure your friend has informed you." I nodded, mouth opening to ask the question that was on my mind. He raised a hand, stopping me before continuing. "In a way, I suppose I should thank you. The restaurant has become a blight, and even if we were allowed to continue business, there is simply too much negative press surrounding it for there to be any hopes of it returning to its former glory." Mr. Faz took a breath, looking me over before speaking again.

"With regards to your friends, the animatronic band… There are currently two schools of thought in order. One states that we should destroy them, melt them down so that this incident could never happen again…" I gasped, recoiling in horror at the thought of Foxy and the others being callously destroyed, after all their work and effort in trying to save their home. "The other states that the advanced artificial intelligence should be taken into quarantine, studied, and dismantled piece by piece for the sake of 'enhancing technological progression', although I find it's a safe bet that all they want is to find a better form of artificial intelligence for their infernal war machines." Mr. Faz looked me over, a faint smile beginning to grace his features. "I have decided to propose a third option. Mr. Redding, it is clear from your activities of the past night that you have become… Somewhat attached to the band on a personal and emotional level. And for many of them, that attachment is mutual. Those four are my life's work, Mr. Redding… They're like my children. So, in hopes that they will be saved…" He took a breath and stared at me.

"Mr. Redding, would you do an old man a simple favor and take the Fazbear band into your own home?"

I froze. Living with Freddy, Foxy, Bonnie and Chica? All in my little apartment? I opened my mouth to bring up the issue with this, before he raised a hand and stopped me once more. "Rest assured, I would be more than willing to help provide you with more suitable accommodations and necessary supplies to suit their needs. Furthermore, I would be more than willing to maintain the privacy of all of you for as long as you wish. After all, we have all been through a highly stressful situation, so I do not begrudge you one iota for wanting a few days to establish a new normalcy." He frowned slightly. "Of course, eventually the truth must be revealed; these are artificial intelligence entities indistinguishable from human minds, after all. The scientific community will eventually be forced to investigate, but to be perfectly honest I would rather any investigation they perform to be done with the supervision of someone I trust to look out for their well-being first and foremost. And after the events of last weekend, I believe you are trustworthy enough to be given the job of their guardian."

I nodded, thinking long and hard. No matter which way I looked at it, he was right; eventually, the world would have its say in what those four were and how best to deal with them. However, I'd rather have the final say in what happens than to just abandon them to either perpetual lab rats or destruction.

Plus, it would give Foxy and I a chance to finally sit down and talk for a while… My mind was made up, and I shook Mr. Faz's hand. "You've got yourself a deal, sir." He smiled, his eyes warming. No thanks were needed; we both understood the reasoning why. I tried to fidget my left arm a bit, but hissed slightly in pain. Adams came to my side, before nodding grimly.

"Alex, friend… Might as well reveal this last little nasty surprise now, because you'll find out soon anyway. Gold's bite… It completely pulped your bone and muscle from your elbow down. The doctors weren't able to save it, so…" He sighed, and my eyes widened in confusion. They took off my arm? Then how was I able to still FEEL the thing? I'd heard of the idea of phantom itches and movements, but this felt far too real. "Luckily, there were still a few assorted spare parts after we took apart the processing facilities… So we managed to give you at least something." With that, Adams pulled the blankets off of my left arm, and I stared in shock.

From the wrist down, it looked like a perfectly normal human hand, if a bit more pale than the rest of my body. The wrist itself, however… I saw a number of servos, cables, and assorted mechanical parts in a small gap where my wrist joint was, followed by more of that pale 'skin' up to just below the elbow, where more mechanical parts and a metal plate were showing exactly where my new arm connected. Mentally I clenched my fist, and my hand did likewise. How in the…

"We managed to reverse engineer much of what Golden Freddy used to create his drones and used it to manufacture this prosthetic arm for you. In fact, some engineers examining the technology have said that it may push prosthetic research and development ahead by a massive quantum jump. Granted I didn't understand much of what they said, however I was able to get the gist of it." Mike interjected, nodding with a smile. I looked down again. So now, I had a portion of Freddy Fazbear's with me forever… I nodded, before looking up to Alex.

"So, when can I get out of here?"

He smiled and held up release papers. "All we were waiting for was for you to wake up. The stitches in your chest have mostly healed, but they'll still hurt for a while. Other than that… Right now."

About two hours and a massive pile of paperwork later, I was riding shotgun while Adams drove me, Mr. Faz, and Mike to the pizzeria. This was meant to be a quick and easy run, and they said I didn't have to tag along; in fact, I probably could've used the time better in packing up and getting ready to move into the house that Mr. Faz offered me to replace my battered apartment, but… This was something I had to do. We pulled into the parking lot and I nodded in approval; apparently the clean-up crew had managed to do a fairly decent job, considering the massive mess that was made. I climbed out of the car, grunting softly as I did so, Adams helping me passed the 'CONDEMNED' tape and into the building itself.

As we entered, I looked around; sure enough, I saw Freddy and his cohorts on the Show Stage, conversing among themselves and looking fairly saddened. I cleared my throat. "Guys, you'd think you would be happier, considering I just came in." The three of them looked up, eyes wide… Before flat-out bumrushing me, catching me in an animatronic group-hug. "Alex! You're alive!" Bonnie squealed, Chica grinning and hugging me close, and even Freddy giving me a healthy pat on the back. I smiled, wincing in pain at the squeezing but glad to be alive. After a moment, they let go and grinned up at me. "Bloody good to see you all again, guys… Hey, we won!" I grinned, giving them each hugs in return this time, before looking around for a moment, noticing that one animatronic was still missing. "Guys, where's Foxy?" Freddy sighed slightly, before pointing to Pirate's Cove.

"She hasn't come out since that night, Alex. Occasionally we can hear her sobbing from in there. She thought she lost you… We all did, but she took it the worst out of all of us." I nodded. I understood why, and knew what I had to do. Freddy smiled, tipping his top hat to me. "Go see her, Alex. Go show her you're still alive." With a smile, I rested a hand on the bear's shoulders. "Thank you, my friend. I'll do that. Meanwhile, Mr. Faz has some news for all of you…" I patted the old man's back, before heading towards Pirate's Cove. As I climbed up on stage and disappeared behind the curtain, I could already hear their disbelieving cries and shouts of joy. That was for later, though; for now… I could hear her. She was sitting there, atop the ship playset on its deck, sitting on a treasure chest… and I could hear her sobbing there, in the dark. Slowly, I climbed up the stairs, before standing behind her. Her ear twitched, and she spoke, her voice sounding cracked and broken.

"F-Freddy… Go away… I d-don't want to talk…" She sobbed out. I slowly approached her, before speaking. "Guess it's a good thing I'm not Freddy, isn't it?" She spun on her heel, fixing me with wide, glowing eyes. I smiled, waving at her. "It's me, hun." The words were barely out of my mouth before she ran towards me, wrapping me in a tight hug and burying her face against my chest. I groaned softly in pain, but grit my teeth and held it in.

It was all worth it to feel my foxgirl in my arms once again.

She was sobbing still, shaking in my arms with every heaving cry. I slowly wrapped my arms around her, stroking her fur tenderly. "It's okay, Foxy… I'm here. I'm okay." She looked up at me, eyes filled with that same thing I'd seen in them when we'd shared that first kiss, back on the van on our way to downtown.

Love.

Acting on this, I leaned down and softly pressed my lips to hers, my arms around her waist. She reached up, her own arms wrapping around my shoulders as she leaned into the embrace and held the kiss, cooing softly as she did so, her eyes softly closing as I held her in a loving embrace. After a few moments, she leaned back, sighing heavily. "As glad as I am to see you again, Alex… It doesn't really matter. I know what's going to happen to us… After that night, nobody's going to trust us again. The pizzeria is doomed, and so are we…" I smiled once more, deciding to drop the second surprise on her, and motioned for her to sit down.

"Yes, you're right. Freddy Fazbear's is being demolished this weekend. However…" I grinned at her. "You and the others have found a new caregiver, and a new home." Her eyes widened, looking up at me with a faint hope. "Y-you mean?"

I nodded. "Foxy, you are currently looking at the sole caretaker of the entire Freddy Fazbear crew, including you, Bonnie, Chica, and Freddy. You're all coming to live with me."

There was a long silence, before Foxy began to sob once more. This time, however, it was different. This time, she was sobbing with sheer joy and bliss as she hugged me once more. I sat down on the chest next to her, my arm around her shoulders before I spoke again.

"You know… This isn't going to be the easiest thing. We're fairly different, after all… And beyond even that, the world's eventually going to find out that human-level, sentient artificial intelligence exists – and has existed – for a long time in a very unlikely place. It's going to be a rough time."

She nodded, her paw resting on my hand. "But there's one thing that I have… That we all have, Alex." I tilted my head curiously. She smiled, kissing me once more. "We have you. I have you. And as long as that remains, everything will be alright."

I blushed slightly, before smiling and wrapping an arm around her waist, gently standing. "Come on, hun. Let's get home. We've got a lot of work to do." She nodded, accompanying me out to the dining room, where the others waved. Together, we walked out and piled into the van, Foxy and I squeezing together in the back. I smiled, looking around the van at everyone.

Mr. Faz, the man behind this place, and the man who would give his creations a new life and a new hope.

Mike Schmidt, who taught the violent machines how to love, and the only survivor of the deadly year of the pizzeria.

Joseph Adams, a PTSD-diagnosed former SWAT who had managed to get myself and my new friends out of this entire situation alive with his equipment and support.

Freddy, Bonnie, and Chica. The frontrunners of the band and three of the best friends I could ever ask for. I knew that no matter what, I could count on them for help as we entered this brave new world.

Foxy, sitting right next to me. I smiled slightly at a memory; after my last girlfriend was caught cheating on me, I had essentially given up on ever finding love again. Apparently, love comes in all shapes and sizes, and in the most unusual places. I gave her paw a gentle squeeze, which she returned eagerly.

"Guys, we've got a long road ahead. It's not going to be an easy one, but we'll always have each other's backs along it. Let's go home; we've got a lot of work to do…" I smiled, looking on down the road, and looking to all of the others.

My friends. My family.

"And I'm eager to get started."

* * *

I maaaay have been listening to "Faith of the Heart" far too much when I wrote that final sequence. Don't judge me :P

That does give me an idea for another oneshot, though... xD

Anyway, I just want to say a few words here. At the time of writing this, this story - my first ever published work, I might add - is sitting pretty at 101 Favorites, and 113 Follows. Many of those have also translated to my personal account, as well. This story also has 96 reviews, which if I'm not mistaken (and I very much could be) the most reviews for any single Five Nights at Freddy's fanfic. This... These numbers blow me away, even now. The fact that so many people love what I manage to write on weekends and during slow periods at my job... Especially for my first published work... You guys are awesome in so many ways. Seeing new favorites and followers, talking to some of you via PM, and seeing reviews coming in... It makes me feel absolutely honored, and the sheer magnitude of it makes me feel humbled. Somehow, y'all like the work of an average college student who has an enjoyment for writing.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Seriously. You have no idea how many times a crappy day has been improved by seeing a review talking about how much you enjoyed the story, or how absolutely thrilled I get when I see how popular this story - which started as five pages in a Word document - has become in such a short time. You are all amazing and wonderful people. Thank you all for supporting me in my first published work, and for encouraging me to keep going with writing these stories.

Thank you all so very much.

And with that said... I'll see y'all in the future stories!

-Freelancer Josiah


End file.
